Busman's Honeymoon
by EHfan
Summary: When the government is worried something strange is going on in northern Idaho, they want to send the FBI's Special Science Advisor in to take a look. Jacob thinks it's the perfect opportunity to take Rachel on a honeymoon.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: The title of this story is a homage to a book by one of my fav authors – Dorothy Sayers. This story is set a month after the story "Father's Day."

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Special Agent Rachel Young was silently seething. Seated at the head of the conference table she couldn't believe, in her own building no less, she had been treated with such disrespect. Shortly after they arrived that morning, Jacob was summoned by the Director to a meeting with Thomas Hager, the Deputy Undersecretary of Analysis from the Department of Homeland Security. When they entered the conference room the Undersecretary, along with another agent from Homeland, was already present.

Introductions were made and Rachel was about to take a seat next to Jacob. Then the agent accompanying Hager, Suzanne Corral, murmured something about how the information they were about to share was classified and need to know only. She suggested Agent Young be dismissed. Hager agreed; in his opinion Young's presence was unnecessary. Jacob objected; Rachel's security clearance equal to his own.

"Besides," he declared, "I'll tell her what we talked about after you leave anyway."

After a moment of startled silence, Frank Fuller intervened. He acidly pointed out that Dr. Hood was an FBI asset; it was up to the FBI to determine when and if his protection detail was to be dismissed. As a sop to the Homeland people, he caught Rachel's eye and, with a flick of his head, indicated she should take a seat at the far end of the table, as far from the principals as possible. Corral started to object, but Hager silenced her. He belatedly realized, as someone who had come to ask a favor of the FBI, he should be more conciliatory.

The story Hager told was succinct and to the point. A few weeks previously, the Homeland fusion center located in Boise City, Idaho forwarded to DC a report on the activities of a group known as the Sons of Zion. The group wasn't previously on their radar but their recent purchases had raised some questions. They had purchased lab equipment a few months ago and a week previously they had taken delivery of a small x-ray machine. The analysts at the fusion center concluded the group might be trying to develop some type of weapon. He tapped Corral to take the lead in investigating the reports. She was chosen since she was an expert on the various militia groups operating in that area.

Corral took up the tale. She reviewed the intelligence and, together with what she knew about militia groups, was convinced the matter should be taken seriously. Problems arose when she tried to verify the information. There wasn't much information about the Sons available. They were a new group with a limited internet presence. Satellite photos weren't helpful; many areas of their compound were shielded from view and, due to the surrounding mountains, aerial surveillance was impossible.

The only way to confirm the intel was to send in agents, to put boots on the ground in Idaho. The location of the compound presented a problem. It was situated in a relatively unpopulated part of the state; strangers in the area would arouse suspicions. Whoever was sent in would have to work undercover. Corral's plan was simple. The Sons were protective of their privacy. The compound was close to the Pacific Northwest Trail; hikers who strayed too close to their boundaries were often confronted and detained.

"How do they get away with that?" Jacob interrupted, "don't the local police intervene?" He snorted, "or in this day and age I'd think they'd get their asses sued off."

"They claim it's a citizen's arrest, the hikers are trespassing on their land and causing damage." Corral explained. "We suspect the Sons run background checks on the hikers while they wait for the cops. When the cops point out the land is part of the public right of way, they apologize." She shook her head, "from what I've gathered, the people they detain are only too happy to be on their way. "

Corral continued to outline her plan. Two agents would pose as hikers. When they were detained by the Sons, they would display some sympathy for and interest in the movement; ask if they could stay in the compound for a day or so in order to learn more about the group. This would allow them to look around and get some idea of what was happening. There was one catch; one of the hiker/agents had to have the necessary scientific background to judge what the group was doing.

"Which brings me to my favor," Hager said. "We'd like to use Dr. Hood as one of the two hikers."

"I'm not so sure about this," Frank frowned at the man across the conference table. "After all, Jacob is a civilian employee of the Bureau. It doesn't seem like a good idea to send him in undercover."

"I know, it's not optimal, but I can't see any other way," said Hager, "We're not talking basic surveillance; we need someone who knows their science, who can evaluate what's going on in there and let us know if we have anything to worry about."

"Why can't you use someone of your own?" Frank objected. "Surely there's someone in your science and technology directorate who can handle this job?"

"You'd think so," Hager responded. "The problem is none of them has ever been in the field, wouldn't know how to handle themselves if things got dicey." He tilted his head toward Jacob, "But Hood has and that's important. We'll…."

"Are you nuts?" Frank interrupted, glaring. "Jacob's not a trained agent, he's …"

"Be sending him in with one of our best agents," Hager finished smoothly. He indicated the woman sitting beside him. "Agent Corral will be going in with Hood to investigate what's going on in that compound."

"I already have a handler," Jacob protested. "Why can't Rachel accompany me?"

A flash of annoyance crossed Corral's face. Her career at Homeland had stalled due to her lack of field experience. When Hagar had asked her to look into the report from the fusion center she realized quickly it had all the earmarks of a career making assignment. She wasn't about to let some FBI nerd stand in her way.

Corral was wearing a dress with a deep V neckline. Leaning forward she hunched her shoulders slightly, emphasizing her cleavage. She smiled seductively at Jacob. "Oh, Dr. Hood, I hope I can change your mind," she purred "I've read your file and I've been looking forward to working very… closely with you." She reached across the table and lightly stroked the hand Jacob had rested on the table. "I think we'd make a _great_ team."

Jacob raised an eyebrow and a faint look of distaste crossed his face. "Do you do that often Agent Corral?" he asked curiously.

The woman sat back in confusion. "Uh, what?"

"Use your sexuality to manipulate men." Jacob said matter-of-factly. "You're implying you'll make yourself, um," Jacob's cheek's turned slightly pink, "available if I accept you as a partner."

Rachel couldn't suppress a snort of laughter as a dull red flush crept up Corral's neck. The snort earned her a glare from Hager. She almost snorted again when the Director winked at her.

"I find this problematic on two levels." Jacob continued. "Either you did read my file and thought so little of me you actually believed that garbage would work; which makes you an incredibly poor judge of character." He cocked his head, "or, you didn't read my file and you don't know me at all."

He regarded Hager coolly. "And I'm sorry, but I have no desire to go out in the field, to put my life in the hands of someone like that. " He shook his head, "If you want my help it means I'll be working with Agent Young as I normally do."

"That's not acceptable," Corral snapped. "This is a Homeland operation, the matter falls squarely within our jurisdiction. I'm as fully trained in protective measures as Agent Young." She glared at Jacob, "you'll be perfectly safe with me."

Her words had the unfortunate effect of surprising another snort of laughter from Rachel; even Jacob's lips twitched in amusement. Corral flushed again as the double meaning occurred to her.

Smothering his own smile, Frank decided it was time for him to weigh in again. "I'm sorry Tom, but if you want Jacob for this operation it means taking Young as well." All amusement left his face. "You know as well as I do these militia groups can be violent, there's no telling what they'd do if they discovered Jacob was spying for us. I'm not about to order him into a dangerous situation if he's not comfortable with the agent who's providing back-up."

Corral opened her mouth to continue arguing but Hager silenced her with a look.

"Fine." Hager nodded in agreement, "I can understand Dr. Hood's position, I can't say I'd like to go out in the field on a job like this with a stranger either." He tilted his head toward Corral. "Corral will fill you in, give you all the information you need, the cover stories she arranged, the documents she's had produced."

Rachel took this as permission to join the group. Sliding down the table she took the empty seat next to Jacob. Smiling smugly she asked Corral about the cover identities. Her smile faded slowly as she took in the details of what the other woman proposed.

Jacob was to go undercover as Jacob Holmes, a high school science teacher from Boise. Corral would pose as Suzanne Combs, his girlfriend and fellow teacher. Corral had those names inserted into the employment records of the school district. They would claim to be spending part of their summer vacation hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail. The staff at Homeland prepared the necessary documents; she pulled driver's licenses and credit cards from a folder and passed them across the table to Rachel.

Frowning, Rachel brushed them away. "You've got to be kidding me? _This_ is your idea of a good cover?"

"What do you mean?" Corral said angrily. "These IDs will hold up. What's your problem with them?"

"You have the two of you working at a school in _Boise_, for Christ's sake. It's the largest city in the state. Now, I'm willing to bet there might be a few members of this group who are from there. Might have actually gone to that school." Rachel raised her eyebrow, "What if they ask about other teachers at the school? What if they don't call the central office? What if they call the school directly or a friend who has kids there to check up on Hood?"

Corral squirmed in her seat, obviously the idea that a member of the Sons might be familiar with the school she selected hadn't occurred to her. "He says he's, we're new, haven't actually started working there yet. Or we could change it to a school out of state. I still say it will hold up. It's not like these guys have access to sophisticated identification programs."

"No?" Rachel retorted sarcastically. "How about Google? Think they have access to that? All they need to do is snap Hood's picture and do a Google image search. His face has appeared in the media dozens of times; there's no way to remove them all."

Hager looked confused. "What, are you trying to say that we can't send Hood in undercover?"

"No sir," Rachel answered. "But Hood's a civilian, he hasn't kept, hasn't _had_ to keep a low profile. Any cover story is going to have to track his reality pretty closely." She titled her head, considering. "I'd say we put out a press release stating that Dr. Hood resigned his position as Special Science Advisor to the FBI to return to academia. We can hint there were philosophical differences; he left on bad terms. That should allay any suspicions he might be working undercover for the government."

"Good idea. What do you suggest for your cover?" Hager looked at Rachel with respect.

Rachel shrugged. "Mine will be easy. Unlike Hood, I _have _kept a low profile. No Facebook page, no LinkedIn account, no Pintrest, no pictures identifying me as a federal agent splashed around the Internet. If they do a Google search on me they won't find anything to connect me to the government."

She went on to explain that she had a good friend, a former law school roommate, whom she could trust implicitly. The friend was the CEO of a non-governmental organization that made micro-loans to women starting small businesses in Appalachia. Her friend, without asking any questions, would be glad to list her as an employee of the organization. So if the Sons checked up on her they would find ample evidence that she was a DC resident with a job they wouldn't find objectionable.

"All the Bureau needs to do for me," she concluded, "is to block my finger prints from coming up in an online search." At Corral's raised eyebrows she added, "we can't rule out the idea a local LEO may be a member of the group, running the background checks for them."

"Good," Frank said. "We'll just get to work on that press release to cover Jacob…."

Jacob cleared his throat. He had a few ideas of his own to propose on that subject. His faculty web page at Stanford, while not currently active, had never been deleted. He was sure Debbie, the administrative assistant at the Department of Applied Physics, wouldn't mind reactivating it and adding him to the list of current faculty. It would add credibility to his claims of returning to academia. Furthermore, if the Sons did happen to call to confirm his position, since it was July, the only person around for them to speak with would be her. Like Rachel's friend, she could be trusted to be discreet.

Sending a sideways glance at Rachel, he plowed ahead with another suggestion, one he knew she wouldn't like. One of the things that made Debbie so invaluable to the department was her superior computer skills. She was an accomplished hacker. Jacob further proposed asking Debbie to plant an article in an earlier edition of the _Stanford Daily_. The article would quote him as being disillusioned with his work for the Bureau and looking forward to being back in his lab and teaching. The article would conclude that he and his bride, the former Rachel Young, would be taking up residence in Atherton after spending their honeymoon hiking in the Pacific Northwest.

"Your what?" Rachel yelped. She couldn't believe Jacob could make such a suggestion. "What the hell are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking logically." Jacob replied. "The name of the group is the _Sons_ of Zion, not the Sons and Daughters or even the Children of Zion. This suggests to me they're not just conservative, but a strongly patriarchal group. If your status is that of my girlfriend they may not allow us to stay, they'd consider you a woman of loose morals, a bad influence on the women and children in the group. Besides, as my wife, you'll be dismissed as merely an appendage to me. It will allow you greater freedom of movement."

Rachel wished she had kept her seat at the head of the table. At least from there she had a good view of the Director's face; she would have been able to judge his reaction to Jacob's proposal. Although, objectively it made sense, it _was _logical. On reflection, she decided it might make the Director _more_ suspicious if she raised a fuss about posing as Jacob's wife.

"Yeah, ok, I can see that," Rachel injected a note of grudging acceptance into her voice. She didn't want to seem to be capitulating too easily, "but why do we have to be on our honeymoon?"

"They may have a skewed world view, but these people aren't idiots. They're going to be suspicious when a former employee of the Bureau suddenly turns up on their doorstep expressing an interest in their cause. I, we, need a neutral reason for being in the area, so a honeymoon makes sense." He flicked a finger at the fake IDs, "plus, we won't need these. As newlyweds who're in the process of moving cross-country, our different names on our real IDs are easily explained."

Frank sat in thought for a few moments. Young hadn't been the only one startled by Jacob's idea. It brought to the front of his mind the doubts he had about the continuing relationship between Jacob and Young. He wished he could be sure one way or the other if there was anything there. Every time he thought their relationship had progressed beyond the professional, a reasonable explanation would be offered that convinced him he was imagining things.

When Young was shot and kidnapped, he had been shocked when Jacob went off the grid, worked alone to rescue her. But it turned out Jacob was correct; if things had been left up to that bastard Wynne both Jacob and Young would be dead by now. Then there was Young moving into Jacob's building. He had almost had an apoplexy when Jacob casually informed him but when he tentatively raised the subject with McGruder he was surprised to find Ty approving. It seemed Ty _had_ been concerned about the number of times DC had been shut down due to bad weather leaving Hood unprotected. Ty thought it showed good initiative on Young's part.

Now Jacob wanted to have Young pose as his wife. His explanation though was sound; posing as his wife would put Young in a role that might cause the Sons to underestimate her. And that just might save her and Jacob's lives if things started to fall apart.

"I like it," Frank declared. "The best lies always have a kernel of truth. And since you've been working together so long you won't have to remember a lot of phony backstory. Less chance of getting tripped up by details." He nodded in approval. "I think we can work with this."

Hager sent a sour look in Corral's direction. He was disgruntled by the performance of an agent he had personally selected for this assignment. A cover story she, as evidenced by the ID material she had available, took days to assemble was discredited by Young in a matter of moments. To add insult to injury, she and Hood then came up with an alternative plan in seconds; a plan that would not only hang together but didn't require much on the part of the Bureau to implement.

"Fine," he grumbled. "Corral will work with you on the logistics, she'll…."

"No need for that," Rachel said. "Agent Lee is more than capable of handling those details for us." At Hager's look of inquiry, she explained. "Agent Lee is the other member of our team; he handles advance support and recon." She looked over at Corral, "I suggest Agent Corral accompany us to Dr. Hood's lab. While she fills us in on the details of the report from the fusion center, Felix can get to work on our travel arrangements."

With the both her boss and the Director of the FBI agreeing with this course of action Corral had no other option than to smile and nod her acceptance. The Director waved them out of the room and informed them he and Hager would work on the press release and join them in Hood's lab when they were finished.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Agent Felix Lee looked up from his magazine as the door to Hood's lab opened and Agent Young and the Doc entered, accompanied by a strange woman.

"Hey, Doc, Agent Young. What's up? We headed out?"

His face fell as Rachel shook her head. "_We're_ not, just Hood and me. This is Agent Suzanne Corral, from Homeland, she's going to fill us in on the situation while you, ah,"

"While you plan our honeymoon," Jacob said with a straight face.

Felix's jaw dropped and his eyes swiveled from the Doc to Agent Young. He wondered for a fleeting second if the jig was up, if the Director had confronted them about their relationship and they had owned up to their marriage.

"Your, your… what?" he stuttered.

Rachel sent Jacob one of her better glares. "Dr. Hood and I will be working undercover."

She sent a glare in Felix's direction as he burst out laughing. When he had recovered a bit, she explained about the report from the fusion center. She briefly outlined the cover story and requested that Felix set about making the necessary travel arrangements. They needed to be on the road as soon as possible.

Unable to suppress his grin, Felix made notes as Agent Young talked. After hearing the whole story he booted up his laptop. He also placed a call to the Library Unit to gather his own information on the Sons and the locale in which their compound was located.

While Felix worked quietly in the background, Corral began an in-depth briefing on what the fusion center had discovered. As she was explaining the significance of some of the purchases the Sons had made, Jacob's cell phone buzzed. He excused himself, it was Debbie. He had emailed her from the conference room asking her to call when she arrived in her office. He moved to the other side of the lab to discuss with her what he needed.

After finishing his conversation with Debbie, Jacob drifted over to where Felix was working. He had some definite ideas about his and Rachel's honeymoon that he wanted to share with the big man. To his amusement, Felix didn't need any help planning a suitable trip; he not only booked them into the best hotel in Spokane but he also found them a small inn in a town near the compound with a honeymoon suite. A smile tugged at his lips; he never suspected that Felix had a romantic streak.

Hesitating slightly, Felix glanced at Rachel and Agent Corral. Lowering his voice, he expressed some doubts about Corral's plan. From what he had discovered about the area, it might not be as easy to infiltrate the compound as she expected. Hands in his pockets, Jacob considered what Felix had to say. Tilting his head slightly, he proposed some modifications to the timeline. Nodding thoughtfully, Felix turned back to his laptop, ready to make the changes the Doc suggested.

When he rejoined Rachel and Corral, Rachel excused herself to make a phone call of her own. As she expected, her friend Heather accepted without question the need to add Rachel to her organization's website as an employee. She was intrigued by and glad to help with the undercover assignment. The hard part was telling Heather to instruct her staff to say, if anyone called to check up on her, that she had resigned from the organization due to her recent marriage.

"Oh. My. God." Heather squealed, "You're going undercover with that gorgeous hunk? As his _wife?_"

Rachel hung up after muttering that she really wasn't free to discuss the details of the op.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Felix was in the process of printing up airline and hotel confirmations when the Director and Undersecretary Hager entered the lab.

"Here's the announcement," Frank said. "We'll add it to a press release that was issued last month."

Jacob read the announcement with approval. It was short, almost terse, and gave the distinct impression he had been allowed to resign from the FBI rather than be fired. It included the information that he would be returning to his position at Stanford. Jacob suggested they alter the date slightly so it would line up with the article Debbie was inserting into the Stanford newspaper. Frank made the necessary corrections.

"Next item," Frank continued briskly, "what's the status of your cover stories and, uh, your, uh, honeymoon?"

Rachel smugly explained that by the end of the day both she and Hood would have easily verifiable evidence they were who they were purporting to be, recently married former residents of the District. Jacob would be seen to have re-established himself at Stanford and she would be listed as an employee of a NGO.

Nodding in approval, Frank turned his attention to Felix. "Agent Lee, have you finished making their travel arrangements?"

"All set," Felix announced enthusiastically waving his printouts in the air. "The Doc and Agent Young will leave DC on Saturday…."

"Why the delay?" Frank wanted to know.

"We have some shopping to do," Jacob answered. "We need to get Rachel new hiking boots."

Felix overrode Rachel's protests that she had perfectly good boots. He explained that his research had turned up information which threw some doubt on Corral's original plan. Felix looked up at surprise when Hager gave a huff of disapproval at his statement. He shot a confused look at the Director who, with a small smile, indicated he should continue.

It turned out there were few "through" hikers on the Pacific Northwest Trail. It was a new addition to the Park Service and portions of it weren't cleared. Most of the hikers on the trail were day hikers. In fact, the portion of the trail that bordered the Sons compound was one of the more popular stretches since the town about ten miles away was something of a tourist attraction.

Jacob took up the tale. This new information made him realize they needed a back-up plan. There seemed to be more hikers on the trail than Corral anticipated. While they had reports of the Sons accosting _some_ hikers, they didn't know if they accosted everyone hiking in the area. Furthermore they didn't know anything about the hikers involved since they refused to press charges. For all they knew, those hikers fit some kind of profile the Sons developed.

Jacob felt it would be risky to count on the Sons detaining them. If he and Rachel wanted to be sure of attracting the Sons attention they needed to behave in a manner that would make the Sons curious about them, but not overly suspicious. They needed a reason to stay in the area in case they weren't confronted when they first arrived.

Nodding vigorously, Felix resumed explaining the travel arrangements he had made. The Doc and Agent Young would arrive in Spokane on Saturday and spend the night there. The next day they would rent a car and drive to Elmira, the town close to the compound. He booked them into a small B & B and they would spend the day making themselves conspicuous, exploring the town, talking to people about their upcoming hike.

They would tell people they planned to take the local bus to a town about two hours east that had an easy access point to the trail and hike back to Elmira, arriving there on Friday. A leisurely hiking pace would put them near the compound early on Wednesday. If the Sons didn't confront them immediately, they would camp there overnight and stay around for most of the next day. Jacob reasoned the group would surely be concerned about a pair of hikers who seemed to have established a camp nearby. When confronted they would claim they were taking a break from the hike due to Rachel's sore feet.

"Which," Felix concluded triumphantly, "is why Agent Young needs new boots."

"How come I have to be the one with sore feet?" Rachel asked, clearly irritated. "Why can't Hood be the wimpy one?"

Jacob shot her an amused look; he knew that Rachel hated any hint that she was less than competent in any endeavor she undertook. "I think we should do whatever we can to diminish you in their eyes. The less attention they pay you the better." He shrugged, "it's bad enough we can't hide my connection to the Bureau. We don't want them wondering if you're anything other than what we say you are."

Frank smiled in satisfaction; his people were showing up well in front of the pair from Homeland. He held out his hand for the documents Felix printed out. Flashing an uneasy look at the Doc, Felix handed them over. As he reviewed them, he raised his eyebrows slightly. "The honeymoon suite?"

Felix looked back innocently, "well, sir that _is_ their cover story. And we don't know how extensive their background checks are, we, they need to stay in character."

"Good work Lee, only one problem." He smiled outright at Lee's indignant expression. "You need to book travel for yourself and Corral."

Corral looked up with hope. She had been sitting slumped in her chair, wondering how badly her career had been damaged by today's events.

Felix and Hager both burst into speech.

Frank cut short their exclamations. "I think it's necessary Tom. I'm not all that comfortable sending a civilian employee in under cover with only a single agent as back-up."

"So we're gonna join the Doc and Agent Young on their honeymoon?" Felix looked skeptical, "no offense sir, but that's gonna look odd."

Frank made a moue of impatience. "Of course not, I want you and Corral to set up a headquarters in Spokane, keep a watching brief." He looked at Hager, his expression turning grim. "If this thing goes bad I don't want the cavalry to have to far to travel." He turned his attention back to Felix. "I want you to get in touch with the Seattle field office. Let them know you're coming and that they're to offer you any and all assistance. I want you running point on this one, set up a command center that can react at a moment's notice."

A grin split Felix's face; the Director was entrusting him with the full authority to run this operation. "Yes, sir."

Hager agreed grudgingly, "It is a good idea. But why do you need Corral?"

Frank shrugged, "She brought us the problem, it's only right she should help clear it up."

Hager thought for a few seconds while Corral held her breath. She was well aware that her career hung in the balance here. She gave an almost imperceptible sigh of relief when Hager nodded. "Fine." He turned to the woman, "consider yourself seconded to the Bureau for the duration of this operation." He looked at her witheringly, "and pay attention, maybe you'll learn something."

"Yes, sir, thank you sir," she gulped.

….

The next two days were busy. Corral spent as much time with Jacob, going over the intel from the fusion center, trying to figure out what he should be looking for when they arrived in the compound, as she did with Felix and Rachel. They were receiving a crash course in the current militia movement and what Rachel could expect to find and how she might be treated.

When they weren't tied up with Corral, Jacob and Rachel went shopping. After Rachel selected her boots at a local sporting goods store, Jacob became absorbed in examining the selection of dried and pre-packaged foods. Rachel suggested they might want to focus on more practical items, like a tent and sleeping bags; she was surprised when he absently replied there was no need, they had plenty of camping equipment back at the house. She teasingly asked if they were remnants from his Boy Scout days.

"Uh, no, that stuff got thrown out years ago, the equipment I have now is much better quality."

Rachel gaped at him in surprise, "_you_ were a Boy Scout?"

"Uh-huh, Eagle," Jacob pulled his attention from the food display, he smiled reminiscently. "It was my mom's idea. She said it wasn't healthy for me to spend all my time lost in my head or with my nose in a book. She made me do what she called normal boy stuff."

After the sporting goods store, they headed to a jeweler's to purchase a ring for Jacob.

Their wedding had been a spur of the moment ceremony a few months previously. Rachel assumed, since they hadn't talked about, or shopped for rings, that they would skip them. After all, it wasn't as if they could wear them. So when the court clerk asked for the ring, she was surprised when Jacob pulled a small shabby velvet box from his pocket. The ring it contained was a pearl surrounded by brilliants in an old-fashioned gold setting. He slipped it on her finger whispering that it had been his mother's.

It was Alex who told Rachel the history of the ring. Jacob's great-grandfather had it made as a wedding present for his bride. He was the last Hood to make his living as a waterman on the Chesapeake Bay and, according to family legend, the pearl came from an oyster he personally harvested. It served as a combination engagement/wedding ring in the Hood family ever since.

Rachel broached the subject of a ring for Jacob hesitantly. In the months since their marriage he had never mentioned a desire for a ring of his own. Seeing as she wore her ring on a chain around her neck, she felt silly expressing a wish for Jacob to have a ring that he couldn't wear.

But it would help their cover story. While not all men wore wedding rings most did. It was important they not do anything, act in any way, that would make the Sons question their story. Rachel tentatively suggested he might want to wear his old wedding ring. She was surprised when he told her he didn't have one.

"We both worked in labs where rings could be a hazard," Jacob shrugged. "We, uh, didn't bother with them."

Rachel hand went automatically to the ring around her neck, the question clear from her expression.

"No," Jacob said softly. "Maggie never wore that ring, She, uh, didn't care for it."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

To Rachel's amusement, Jacob spent a considerable amount of time browsing the selection of wedding rings. He was bringing the same level of concentration to the selection of this pretend ring as to any problem they investigated in the field. After examining and trying on several styles, Jacob asked the clerk to bring out a tray of plain gold bands. Scrutinizing them intently, he picked out a wide band that was a warm rose gold. Slipping it on his finger, he smiled with satisfaction, it fit perfectly.

"I like this one, clean, simple, classic." He cocked his head at Rachel. "What do you think?"

"It's lovely, I've always liked rose gold."

"Good," Jacob turned to the clerk. "Now we need to find a matching one for the lady."

Rachel began to protest but Jacob's small shake of his head silenced her. After several attempts, the clerk found a rose gold band that not only matched the one on Jacob's finger, but also fit Rachel. When Jacob asked how long it would take to have the rings engraved with their wedding date the clerk offered to do it immediately. His eyebrows rose slightly when Jacob gave him a date from the previous spring.

When the clerk disappeared into the back room Rachel turned to Jacob in confusion.

"Why are you getting a ring for me? I love the one I have, it's part of you, of your family, I don't want another one."

"Maybe, but you're going to need another one eventually, tradition says your ring goes to the bride," his lips quirked up in a smile. "Unless you intend to tell our future son and his fiancée they have to pry the ring off your cold dead finger." His face sobered, "plus your ring is too distinctive. Agent Corral might ask questions when she sees it." He shrugged, "We're supposed to be newlyweds, it's best if we have brand new matching rings."

"Ok, yeah, I can see that," Rachel conceded, "but why go to all the trouble of having them engraved? It's not like the Sons are going to…"

Jacob framed Rachel's face with his hands. "Because," he said softly, "I think it's past time for me to have a real wedding ring."

He lowered his head to kiss her and Rachel wrapped her arms around his neck. They broke apart when the clerk loudly cleared his throat. After showing Jacob the engraving, he smirked at the two of them and wanted to know if he should box up the rings.

"No, we'll wear them," Rachel replied.

Taking Jacob's ring from the clerk, she slipped it on his finger. Smiling, Jacob did the same for her.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The atmosphere in the conference room was tense. Hager insisted on a final briefing before they headed out to Idaho. He prowled the room impatiently and snarkily inquired when they could expect Fuller to join them. Before anyone could answer, the Director strode into the room. Felix and Rachel looked at each other and suppressed their grins. The Director was clad in cargo shorts, a polo shirt, deck shoes and was wearing a ball cap. They had never seen him dressed so informally.

Frank also wore an irritated expression. "I'm right here Tom, though for the life of me I can't figure out why." He looked at his watch. "I'm giving you exactly fifteen minutes. Now what the hell are your concerns? Why did you call this meeting?"

"I thought," Hager said through gritted teeth, "that we should have a final run-through of what the plans are for this operation. This has the potential of being something big; I don't want the Secretary to be blind-sided by the press if something goes wrong."

"Yes sir," Corral burst into speech. "We're schedule to…"

Frank cut her off with a wave of his hand. "Tom, you might have questions about your people, but I have complete confidence in mine." He gaze went to Rachel, "Young, is there anything we should know, anything different from what we learned on Wednesday, which might affect this op?"

"No sir," she replied promptly.

His gaze travelled to Felix. "How about you Lee? You discover anything in the last two days that I need to know about?"

Felix grinned and answered in the negative. Frank gave a grunt and turned a baleful gaze on Hager.

"What more do you want to know? Until they get on the ground, have contact with this group, there's not much more they can tell us. I think we need to sit back and let this thing play out. Agreed?"

Hager reluctantly nodded. He turned to Corral. "I guess the four of you can head to the airport."

Felix once again showed the care he took in planning this undercover op. He shook his head, "Not exactly sir." At Hager's look of surprise he elaborated. "We can't be sure who these people are working with, how sophisticated their tracking is. I booked me and Agent Corral on a different airline than the Doc and Agent Young, we're even leaving from a different airport, have different connecting flights. There's no link connecting our trip to Spokane to theirs."

Hager nodded; these FBI people had covered every base, anticipated every problem. He only prayed that Corral could match their expertise and he wouldn't be left hung out to dry if a problem developed. "Fine, I guess I'll just wish you luck then."

Jacob stood and held out a hand to Felix. "Ok, this is it then. Here hoping we don't see you until this time next week in Spokane."

Felix took the Doc's hand and echoed his hope that there wouldn't be any need for his intervention in this operation.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rachel sat back in her seat with a smile. Even after almost four years together, he still managed to surprise her. She had been slightly amused when Jacob insisted, contrary to their usual custom, on handling their check in in at the airport. She hadn't paid much attention to his low-voiced conversation with the agent; from force of habit she was mentally running a threat assessment on their surroundings. It wasn't until their flight was called for boarding that she discovered they were in first class.

"What the hell?" she gaped at Jacob, "first class?"

"I used my miles to get us an upgrade." He grinned at her mischievously, "after all this is our honeymoon."

To Rachel's discomfort, the stewardess overhead Jacob's comment. Cooing over what she assumed were newlyweds, the woman brought them glasses of champagne as soon as they were seated. Rachel waited until the flight was underway to quietly voice her concerns.

"Jacob, you do realize this isn't a real honeymoon?"

"Why not?" At Rachel's blank look, Jacob smiled and ran a finger down her cheek. "Look, I feel badly that you didn't get to have a real wedding." He put his finger over her lips to stop her protest. "I know, you said you were perfectly content with a courthouse ceremony. Still, I think you, we, deserve a honeymoon."

Rachel looked at him in exasperation, "this is a work trip, we're being sent undercover to investigate the possibility of terrorist activity."

"So it's a busman's honeymoon. The fact is that until we make contact with this group, we're on our own." He raised his eyebrows, "No local field office checking in on us, no local cops looking for answers, nothing to investigate." He lifted his shoulder, "we might as well take advantage of the opportunity and make our pretend honeymoon a reality."

Rachel looked at him intently for a few moments, and then she smiled and raised her champagne glass, "ok, here's to a real honeymoon."

Jacob smiled in relief. Putting an arm around her he pulled her close. "I'm glad you agree," he whispered, "because I've already arranged a few honeymoon surprises for you."


	2. Chapter 2

_Wednesday evening_

Rachel sat cradled between Jacob's thighs, gazing into their small campfire. His arms were around her, pulling her close against his chest. As she watched the flames dance, she reflected on how enjoyable the last few days had been. True to his promise, Jacob had arranged a few surprises for her.

The first surprise came shortly after they had checked into their hotel in Spokane. The hotel wasn't the surprise; she hadn't batted an eye upon discovering they were booked into a five star hotel. When they were in the field they were as likely to be staying in such plush surroundings as in a flea ridden "no-tell motel." The surprise came after they had checked in and taken their luggage to their room.

Rachel had dumped her bags and suggested they go find a place for dinner when there was a knock at their door. She was fumbling for her weapon when a voice announced room service. Warily, she opened the door and curtly informed the smiling waiter they hadn't ordered room service. The young man's smile dimmed and he stammered that the order was placed when the room was booked. Brushing her aside, Jacob confirmed the order.

Rachel's eyes widened as she took in the items on the cart; a bottle of champagne, a cheese and fruit plate, some pate, and a loaf of bread. Not only didn't they leave the room for dinner, they ended up having a room service breakfast. Rachel suppressed a grin as she remembered Jacob answering the door, the sheet from the bed wrapped around him toga fashion, as she huddled, giggling, underneath the bedspread.

The next day was also a surprise. Not because of the romantic bed & breakfast Felix had found and Jacob approved. It was her own reaction that surprised her. She hadn't expected the pleasure she took in the casual physical intimacy they shared; walking hand in hand through the town, sitting on a park bench with Jacob's arm around her, reaching out to rub a smear of ice cream from the corner of his mouth. She especially enjoyed the candle-lit dinner. These were the kind of behaviors they couldn't normally indulge in; it was relaxing to not to have to worry about them being seen together and their behavior being scrutinized.

Once they were on the trail Rachel realized Jacob's camping skills were much more extensive than his old Scouting days would suggest. She had undergone outdoor training before being posted to Afghanistan but that had been in anticipation of a no frills experience. She could dig a latrine, lash together a lean-to, and build a fire. She was delighted to find camping with Jacob was a much more pleasant experience.

She was amazed that their sleeping bags, which were in small "stuff sacks," turned out very comfortable, with puffy down filling. She hadn't understood Jacob's smirk when she teased him that the honeymoon must be over already since they would be in separate sleeping bags. Later she discovered he had zipped them together to form a double sleeping bag. Even in the confines of their small tent they made love.

Then there was the food. She expected they would exist on MRE's, peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches, and trail mix. But Jacob, who was an accomplished cook, managed, with a small camp stove, one pot and a supply of dried and packaged foods, to produce three excellent meals a day. Tonight's dinner had been a risotto with sun-dried tomatoes. Jacob even remembered to include a supply of her favorite candies for dessert.

Last night had been the most memorable of their honeymoon. Jacob spread their sleeping bags out in the soft grass in the meadow where they were camped and they made love in the fading light of day. Later, lying in his arms with the sleeping bag wrapped around them, Jacob pointed out the constellations and explained his theories on dark matter to her. They reluctantly adjourned to their tent knowing the next day would put them in range of the Sons and they would have to be on alert at all times. Rachel sighed, for all intents and purposes, their honeymoon was now over.

"Penny for your thoughts." Rachel arched her neck as Jacob nuzzled it.

"Umm, this isn't what I imagined a honeymoon would be like, but I have to say it's hasn't been half bad."

She could feel him smiling against her throat. "Really? What did you imagine?"

"I don't know…. something along the lines of a tropical beach….drinks with little umbrellas in them…." She turned her head to kiss Jacob's cheek. "Indoor plumbing."

Jacob's breath tickled her ear as he gave a small huff of laughter. "Well I did offer…."

"Sorry, but that weird gravity shower thing was not appealing." She was silent for a moment, wondering how this trip compared to his first honeymoon. "So, has our honeymoon lived up to your expectations?"

Jacob tightened his arms. "I'm a guy Rachel, all I need for a perfect honeymoon is time with you." He nuzzled her neck again, "and lots of great sex, so, yeah, I'd say this trip has met my expectations."

A smile tugged at her lips, "Good to know." Rachel leaned back into him. "I guess I'm also getting nervous about what's next. We've been camped out here since noon and haven't spotted any sign of the Sons. You'd think if they had something to hide they would have checked us out by now."

"We don't know what triggers a confrontation with them," Jacob reminded her. "For all we know they've taken note of our presence and decided we're not a threat. Or they're keeping a watching brief, waiting to see if cross some kind of line." He shrugged. "It's why I wanted us to have an excuse to hang around, why I decided on a fire tonight."

"You mean it's not because you thought it would be romantic?"

"Not entirely. It's been pretty dry here this summer. I'm hoping it would make them check us out, be worried that if we're careless we could cause a pretty serious fire in their area."

Nodding, she was impressed with Jacob's logic. He obviously was more familiar than she with what constituted a danger here in the woods. She hadn't given it a second thought when he built the fire; she assumed it was to help ward off the evening chill.

She yawned and sat up. "Good idea. I think I'm ready to turn in." She twisted in Jacob's arms. "And I think we need to be in separate sleeping bags tonight, just in case we have late night visitors," she added severely.

"I hardly think so," Jacob protested. He kissed Rachel lightly to stop her protest. "I know we can't make love but we _are_ supposed to be on our honeymoon," he murmured. "If they search our things they might think it odd we're in separate bags. Besides, it's chilly tonight; we'll need the extra warmth."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The chirping of the birds woke Rachel the next morning. She stretched lazily, enjoying the added warmth of Jacob's body pressed against hers.

"Good morning sunshine." Jacob dropped a kiss on the top of her head, gathering her closer to him. "Sleep well?"

Turning in his arms, Rachel levered herself up against Jacob's chest. "Umm, very well, but … if you'll excuse me." She began to wiggle out of the sleeping bag.

"Don't be so hasty." Drawing her back to him, he kissed her deeply. Rachel gave a small moan of pleasure as Jacob's hand found its way to her ass, pulling her into his morning erection. She reluctantly broke off the kiss and pushed him away.

"You know we can't…"

"I know, you're right." Jacob sighed, "But do you have to be in such a hurry to get up? Let's cuddle for a bit. We're going to be stuck here for most of the day, we might as well delay getting up as long as possible."

"Sorry, I need to pee and I'd rather do it before any other hikers show up."

With a smile Jacob watched Rachel slip out of the tent in her flannel sleep pants and t-shirt. He figured she must need to go pretty badly since she hadn't bothered with her boots. After a minute or so, he decided to go ahead and get dressed himself. He was pulling on his jeans when his head jerked up at the sound of Rachel's scream cut short. As one hand yanked up his zipper, the other groped for the gun Rachel had stashed under her side of the sleeping bag. Jacob had objected to her not keeping it in her pack, now he was grateful for her foresight.

As he erupted from the tent Rachel's words from their long ago visit to the shooting range echoed in his mind. _'….feet shoulder width apart….line your back sight with your front sight… and focus on your front sight.'_ Jacob's stomach clenched in fear as he saw Rachel struggling with a man. With one arm around her waist pinning her to his body, his other hand was covering her mouth. She was furiously trying to free herself, but with her feet bare, her kicks were having no effect on her attacker's shins. A second man was watching the duo and laughing.

"Looks like you got a live one there Will."

"I suggest you let her go. Now." Jacob was amazed, his voice was as rock steady as the gun he clasped in his two hands.

The man holding Rachel looked at Jacob through narrowed eyes. "I _suggest_ you put that gun down, if you try to shoot me you'll end up hitting your woman here."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Jacob trained the gun on the second man. "Fine, let her go or I shoot your friend."

"Ah, Will, come on man, maybe we…" the other man stuttered.

"Shut up Sammy," Will commanded. He smiled at Jacob, "so you want to play games huh?" He took his hand from Rachel's mouth and pulled a knife from the waistband of his jeans and held to her throat. "Put the gun down or I cut her throat."

Jacob winced at the gasp Rachel gave at the feel of the blade against her neck. "You do realize you'll die a minute after her, right? There's no way I'd let you live if you hurt her. Looks like we've got ourselves a standoff." Carefully keeping the gun trained halfway between the two men, he waited to see what would happen.

Will smiled widely and quickly whisked the knife out of sight. "Oh, I don't think so,"

Jacob was confused by this reaction until he heard the unmistakable sound of a rifle being cocked behind him.

"Drop the gun and kick it away from you."

Carefully Jacob raised his hands. He leaned sideways to lay Rachel's Glock on the ground and then kicked it, not only away from himself, but away from the men holding Rachel. He didn't want either of that pair to get ahold of it. With his hands still in the air, he turned slowly to face the man behind him.

"Look, we don't want any trouble here."

An older man with longish white hair and a flowing beard snorted at this statement. "Yeah? If you're not looking for trouble why were you holding a gun on my boy?"

"I was holding a gun on your _boy_ because he was manhandling my wife." Jacob snapped. "We were minding our own business and he and that friend of his," he jerked his head backward, "came out of nowhere and attacked her."

"Your wife?" the older man frowned. He looked beyond Jacob to where his son was still holding Rachel tight against his body. "Will, you let her go now, hear?"

Will reluctantly released Rachel. For her part, she had to suppress her instincts. As soon as she was free she itched to take out her attacker. To do so, however, would blow their cover sky high. Instead, she flew to Jacob's side, wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed herself against him.

For his part, Jacob wrapped his arms around her, pulling her as close as possible. He had a slightly sick feeling in the pit of his stomach; now the moment was here he wasn't sure it would be as easy to allay the suspicions of these men as Corral had assured them it would be. For a fleeting moment he mentally cursed out Corral, Frank, and everyone else who believed this undercover mission was a good idea.

Swallowing his fear, Jacob faced the man who was still aiming his rifle at them. "I don't know who you are or what you want but just take what you want from out stuff and go. We don't want to cause any problems, just take what you want and we'll get out of here as soon as we can."

"We're not thieves," the old man frowned at Jacob, offended. "You're the ones in the wrong here, you're trespassing on our land."

Some of the tension leaked from Jacob's body. It seems as if some of Corral's intel was correct. He frowned and shook his head.

"I don't think so. I've never hiked this trail before, but I have a good topographical map. Where we're camped is part of the right of way established by the Park Service."

"Like hell it is," the old man said. "My father bought this land, free and clear, fifty years ago. I say you're trespassers."

"If we are trespassing, it's unintentional. Look, no harm done, why don't we just forget what's happened here and my wife and I will be on our way."

"No harm done?" The old man's toe nudged the rocks surrounding the remnants of the fire Jacob built the previous night. "We're damned lucky there was no harm done. This summer's been a dry one, if this fire had sparked the whole woods would have gone up. No," he shook his head decidedly, "I'm placing you under citizens' arrest. We'll hold you for the state boys."

Jacob figured one more protest would be in line, he didn't think they should give in to easily. "I'm sure that's not necessary," he protested. "Look, Mr. …"

"Hewitt, Richard Hewitt," the older man responded reluctantly.

"I'm Jacob, Jacob Hood and this is my wife Rachel. As I said, we're simply passing through the area, hiking the trail…."

"Yeah?" Hewitt interrupted nodding toward the Glock lying on the ground between them, "when did automatic pistols become standard hiking gear?"

"This is the Pacific Northwest," Jacob shrugged. "It's a lot more dangerous hiking here than back east. More chances of encountering wild animals, bear even. I wouldn't take my wife out here if I couldn't protect her."

Neither Jacob nor Rachel missed the small nod of approval Hewitt gave this statement. It was a small thing but they both took it as a sign that Jacob's hypothesis about the cultural attitudes of the Sons was correct. With luck, they could use this to their advantage.

"Besides," Hewitt continued, "I'd call you more campers than hikers. You've been on my land for quite some time."

Jacob's eyebrows rose, he had been correct, it took more than passing through the area to attract the attention of the Sons. "Oh, that, uh. It's because of my wife's foot."

At Hewitt's look of skepticism, Jacob launched into the story he and Rachel prepared. How they decided to spend their honeymoon hiking this portion of the Northwest Trail. Jacob glibly explained that while he was an experienced hiker and camper, this was Rachel's first time in the outdoors. Her boots were brand new and she developed a bad blister. They were merely taking a small break from the hike, they intended to be on their way as soon as possible. As he talked the men's eyes fell to Rachel's bare feet. Her right foot sported a neat bandage covering her heel.

Hewitt finally lowered his rifle. It was clear Jacob's story had gone a long ways in allaying his suspicion. "Look, we got off on the wrong foot. I'm sorry about the misunderstanding with Will here." He shot a grimace toward his son. "He was only supposed to ask you to come along to our compound to get this sorted out." He took a step forward, picked up the Glock, and handed it to Jacob. "Now, if you're right and I'm wrong about the trespassing, well, like you said, no harm done." He glanced up at the sky, judging the angle of the sun. "Hell, we'll even feed you breakfast, if you hurry up now."

Rachel decided it was time for her to intervene. She cleared her throat, "um, Jacob baby? Maybe we should go with them? Let the police clear this up?"

Hewitt beamed at her. "That's right ma'am. You two just come along with us, we'll get this straightened out right after breakfast."

After dressing quickly, Jacob and Rachel began the process of breaking up their camp. Jacob's lips twitched when, after she artfully fumbled with the poles of their dome tent, Hewitt brushed Rachel aside and ordered his son and his friend to pack up their gear. Hewitt also made his son carry Rachel's pack.

As they made their way through the woods, Rachel walked beside Hewitt keeping up a steady stream of chatter, giving him a detailed account of how she and Jacob met, wed, and were in the process of moving to their new home in Palo Alto. Anyone who didn't know better would assume she was an empty-headed city girl.

Jacob carefully noted Hewitt's reactions to Rachel's flow of information. He was puzzled when Hewitt barely reacted to her revelation that until recently he was the Special Science Advisor to the FBI. From what Corral had said about militias he expected that little piece of information to be a stumbling block to gaining the trust of the group. To his surprise what interested Hewitt was the fact he was headed back to Stanford; the man stopped short when Rachel mentioned that her husband was a professor of biophysics.

"A physicist, huh? Well I'll be damned."

Jacob began to correct Hewitt, but at a nudge from Rachel he changed the direction of his comments. "Oh? Why is that?"

"Cause we've got ourselves a physicist working up at our compound right now and he tells me his work is kinda stuck; said he wished he had someone to consult. I told him to take his concerns up with our Lord and he scoffed at me." He nodded with satisfaction, "but I prayed on it and the Lord sent me you."

"I don't think I've ever been considered an answer to a prayer before," Jacob smirked, "unless it was one of Rachel's." His lips twitched at the small snort she made.

Hewitt gave a huff of irritation. "I see you're a non-believer too, just like Hank. But the fact remains, last night I brought his concern to the Lord and today, here you are."

"Perhaps," Jacob said. "Uh, what exactly is, uh, Hank working on?"

"Atomic power."

"What?" Jacob's eyes widened in surprise. "You mean he's doing some sort of nuclear experiments? Here?"

"That's right." Hewitt said. "I know you city people think we're all backwards out here in the boonies, but we've provided Hank with a right good set-up; the best money can buy." He then launched into an account of the equipment purchased and the many experiments their scientist was conducting.

Jacob was surprised Hewitt was so open about what was going on in the compound. While he knew Corral suspected them of making some kind of weapon he couldn't believe they would be so open about what they were doing with a couple of outsiders. A sudden thought chilled him; unless of course they had no intention of letting them leave the compound. But he found this idea hard to reconcile with the pride Hewitt was exhibiting; it seemed as if the man was anxious for him to see and approve of the work their scientist was doing.

Hewitt's was finishing up his explanations when they approached the compound. Jacob and Rachel exchanged a startled glance; the compound was larger and much more well-established than they anticipated. Several small cottages surrounded a large structure. On a hill overlooking the compound was a large, rambling two story house. What struck Rachel as strange was the fact there were no fences around the property, anyone could come or go with no problem. She furrowed her brow, from what she knew of military and paramilitary organizations they shared a fondness for securing their perimeters.

They headed for the large structure which appeared to be a combination dining hall and recreation area. About a dozen men were milling around drinking coffee and socializing. Half that number of women sat quietly in the corner overseeing a small group of children. They could hear a clatter from the adjacent kitchen, indicating breakfast preparations were underway. They all fell silent when Hewitt entered with Jacob and Rachel.

"Picked up what we thought were a coupla trespassers," he announced. "But it looks like they might be sent to us by our Lord." He indicated Jacob, "this here is Jacob and he's a physicist. I'm hoping he'll be able to give Hank a hand." The men nodded in approval.

An older woman came out of the kitchen at the sound of Hewitt's voice. "It's about time y'all got back here, breakfast is ready." At her announcement everyone took their places at the two long tables in the room. Jacob and Rachel obediently followed Hewitt to his table. Jacob was about to sit when Rachel, with a frown, pulled at his sleeve; the others were standing in their places with heads bowed.

Once everyone was in place, Hewitt launched into a long and rambling prayer thanking God for the food they were about to eat. Rachel looked around discreetly as Hewitt droned on. She was faintly surprised by the appearance of the members of the Sons. All of the men were wearing long-sleeved shirts, buttoned at the collars and cuffs. The women wore long sleeved, high-necked dresses that brushed their calves. She thought they looked more like members of a conservative religious community than a militia. After his prayer concluded, several other women entered from the kitchen to serve the meal. The older woman silently supervised the servers.

After serving the men, the women finally took their places at the tables. The only time any of the women spoke was to answer a direct question. The exception to this rule was the older woman who took the seat at the end of their table. Rachel guessed she was Hewitt's wife.

Mrs. Hewitt looked at the empty seat at their table and sniffed disapprovingly. "Late again, I see. That's downright disrespectful."

"Now Abigail," Hewitt chided her. "You know Hank is up until all hours in that lab of his. You have to make allowances for him; he's doing important work for us after all."

Just then a man, tall and rangy with untidy grey hair and thick glasses entered the dining hall. Hewitt nodded. "See, now, here he is." He waved to the man, "Hank, get on over here, I've got a surprise for you."

The old man looked up at hearing his name called. Blinking in the dim light, he made his way to his seat at the table. Before Hewitt could say anything, he broke into a smile and extended his hand to Jacob.

"Jacob, Jacob Hood, what in the world are you doing here?"

Rachel's eyes widened in shock as Jacob stood to shake the man's hand. She couldn't believe Corral missed such a crucial detail, that the Sons included a scientist who personally knew Jacob. While it was unreasonable to think she would have a full membership list, Rachel assumed any scientist Jacob knew personally had to have a fairly high profile. Surely if one of them went off to join a militia group it would have been noted somewhere. She inwardly winced thinking what might have happened if they had used Corral's original cover story.

"We were hiking near here." Jacob shook hands, his surprise evident on his face. "A better question is what in the world are you doing here? The last I heard you were doing some work for the Department of Energy."

"Those idiots?" He snorted in disgust. "They yanked my funding, said my work wasn't viable, as if they were in any position to judge. No, I've been here for the last year, Mr. Hewitt's group is funding my research." He gave an approving smile at Hewitt, "if I had known how pleasant it was to work in the private sector, I'd have made the move long ago."

"You two know each other?" Hewitt looked delighted.

"Yes, Henry, was one of my mentors when I was doing my post-doc fellowship at MIT," Jacob answered.

"And damn good work it was," Rosen put in. "It got Jacob a Nobel nomination."

"It couldn't have been that good," Jacob laughed, "I didn't win."

"Ah, what do those Swedes know," Rosen said. "It's been awhile since I've seen you Jacob, what have you been working on lately?"

"Ah, yes, it's been a few years," Jacob answered slowly. "And I've, uh, not been doing any research, I've uh, been with the government as a science advisor." He turned the conversation. "But what have you been working on? Hewitt was telling me that you've been wishing for a collaborator."

While the two men had been talking, Mrs. Hewitt nodded at a younger woman sitting at their table. The younger woman obediently went to the kitchen and returned with a plate of food.

"Dr. Rosen," Mrs. Hewitt interrupted, "why don't you sit down and have your breakfast? You and your friend can catch up over your meal."

Rosen nodded and sat, allowed the young woman to put the full plate in front of him. He barely acknowledged her action; his attention was focused on Jacob. All though the meal he kept up a litany of complaints about his former association with the DOE and praised his new patrons to the skies.

When the meal was finished, Hewitt leaned back with a sigh of satisfaction. "I hope this makes you change your mind about the power of prayer Hank. I prayed for an answer to your problem last night and look what happened; an old and valued colleague of yours just happens to turn up. Maybe Jacob here can help you make the breakthrough or whatever you call it."

Rosen nodded enthusiastically, "Absolutely! I'd love to have Jacob take a look at my work, help me see where I'm going wrong." He pursed his lips, taking in Jacob's grubby appearance. "I hate to have to say this though, but I think you could use a shower first. It wouldn't do for you to drag any contaminants into my lab."

With a smile, Jacob admitted that Rosen had a point; they had been on the trail for a few days and a shower would be pretty welcome. Hewitt nodded, glad to see Jacob was willingly falling in with his and Rosen's plans. He told his wife to take Jacob and Rachel up to their house; the couple would be their guests for the time they spent in the compound.

Rachel smiled prettily at Hewitt and thanked him for his hospitality. She announced that she for one would be happy to finally be clean again. As Jacob and Rachel followed Mrs. Hewitt from the room, Rosen narrowed his eyes.

"Who's the blonde? I didn't realize she was with Jacob."

Will spoke up, "He claims she's his wife."

"Nonsense." Rosen shook his head decisively. "I've met Jacob's wife, she's an immunologist, name of Margaret Cain. I don't know who this woman is, but she's not his wife."

Hewitt's suspicions of the two strangers came flooding back. "You come with me," he snapped at Rosen, "we need to get to the bottom of this."

Dragging Rosen with him, Hewitt hurried after his wife. As they left the dining hall he shouted for her to stop. Mrs. Hewitt, Jacob and Rachel, turned toward him, looking puzzled.

"So, who is she really?" Hewitt ground out as soon as he was within speaking distance.

Jacob's mind went blank for a second; surely there was no way for them to have discovered Rachel was an FBI agent already. "What, what do you mean?"

"You say she's your wife," Hewitt spat out, "but according to Hank, here, she's not. He says your wife is some immunist, name of Margaret."

Jacob's mouth fell open and then he took a deep breath. "Dr. Rosen is speaking about my first wife. She _was_ a doctor, an immunologist." He turned to Rosen, "She died Henry, it's been almost five years now. Rachel and I were married a few months ago."

Rosen looked abashed. "I'm sorry Jacob, I, I hadn't heard." He cleared his throat, "I'm, uh, sorry for your loss." He squinted in Rachel's direction, "Or I guess I should say congratulations." He shrugged, "whatever, no harm done, right? Now go get cleaned up and I'll meet you in my lab."

At Hewitt's nod, Mrs. Hewitt urged Rachel and Jacob to once again accompany her. Murmuring that he needed to get back to work, Rosen headed off into the woods. Hewitt stood staring, a thoughtful look on his face. He finally came to a decision. "Will," he barked.

"Yeah?"

"I need you to check up those two, see if they are who they say they are."

Will smiled derisively, "I thought they were an answer to your prayers?"

Hewitt frowned, "don't give me any of your lip, boy, You just remember, the Lord helps those who help themselves. Maybe He sent them, maybe He didn't, so it's up to us to check them out."

Nodding, Will headed off in the same direction as Rosen.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jacob leaned up against the door to the bedroom letting out a whoosh of relief. "Well that was scary."

Rachel was kneeling on the floor, rummaging through her pack. She looked up, an expression of amusement on her face. "Why? Afraid of what they would do to a pair of fornicators?"

Jacob looked at her blankly. "What are you talking about? I thought they knew you were an agent, that our cover had been blown."

Rachel frowned at him, and motioning him to step away from the door, she carefully opened it, checking to see if the hallway was clear. "Damnit, Jacob. Our cover _would_ have been blown if Mrs. Hewitt had heard you." Shaking her head she continued, "How could you think that anyway? They haven't had a chance to check us out yet." She gave him a level look, "the real test will be later today, after they've done their background checks."

"I know, I guess I'm not cut out for this cloak and dagger stuff." His lips twitched. "Fornicators?"

Rachel giggled. "You nailed it when you told Corral these people were likely to be conservative and patriarchal. Look how Hewitt reacted when he realized I was your wife. He didn't like his son having his slimy little hands on me. And you saw how all the women dress, wait on the men." She nodded. "Yeah, this place definitely undervalues women. I should be able to look around with arousing any suspicion."

She moved toward the bathroom Mrs. Hewitt had told them they shared with another bedroom. "I get dibs on the first shower by the way." She stopped short at the doorway and gave an audible sigh of pleasure. The old-fashioned bathroom had a large claw footed bathtub. Rachel spied a glass jar of some kind of purple crystals on the edge of the tub. Opening it, she sniffed delicately. "Ummm, lavender." She turned to Jacob with a grin. "On second thought, you go first, a long hot bath sounds like just the ticket right now."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Freshly shaved and showered, Jacob came downstairs to find Hewitt waiting for him in the hallway.

"Where's your wife?"

"I'm afraid Rachel isn't quite the outdoors person I am. She took one look at the tub and bath salts and announced she needed to soak the trail out of her pores." Jacob smiled. "I think we might not see her until lunchtime."

He hoped Hewitt would accept this story. He and Rachel decided it would be best if they split up; he to investigate whatever it was Henry Rosen was up to while she pumped the women for information. To his relief, Hewitt grunted and nodded in acknowledgement. It seemed Rachel's prattle on the way to the compound had disarmed the man. He was more than willing to dismiss her as a threat.

"Fine, Abigail can look after her, keep her occupied while you work with Hank."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rachel sighed with pleasure as she wrapped herself in one of the thick bath towels Mrs. Hewitt provided. She had enjoyed her steamy, lavender scented bath; while she didn't have a problem with roughing it while camping she saw no reason to deny herself available luxuries. She came to a halt at the door between the bathroom and the bedroom she had Jacob had been given. Kneeling on the floor, rummaging through her backpack was the young woman who had served Rosen his breakfast.

"Can I help you?"

The young woman looked up with a gasp, her face turning bright red at being caught snooping. "Oh! Um, hi. I, uh,." she stuttered to a halt and took a deep breath. "I'm Laura Hewitt, Will's wife. Mother Hewitt is, uh,… getting the laundry ready and she told me to ask you if you'd like her to wash your dirty clothes." The woman offered Rachel a weak smile. "But since you were in the bath, I didn't want to bother you, I thought I'd just get 'em myself."

Rachel stared at the girl briefly before smiling at her cheerfully. "Oh, that is _so_ nice of her." She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I swear, I'm tired of being grubby. I've only got one clean shirt left and I wanted to save it for when we rejoined civilization." She wrinkled her nose. "Jacob only let me bring two shirts and an extra pair of jeans."

She crossed over to where the girl was kneeling. "Here, let me get them for you. We packed all of our dirty clothes together in one stuff bag." Rachel dumped out her backpack and picked up the bag of dirty clothes. She began rummaging around in it and pulled out four pairs of lace and silk panties. Laura eyes widened at the sight of them.

"I'll wash these out by hand though." Rachel noted the look on Laura's face. "I gave in on the rest of my clothes but I told Jacob there was no way I wasn't wearing clean panties every day." She winked. "He didn't put up an argument."

Blushing, Laura took the bag of clothes from Rachel and backed out of the room. Rachel looked after her thoughtfully. Moving as quietly as possible, Rachel eased open the door and looked into the hallway. She was just in time to see Laura enter a room down the hall, fortunately leaving the door ajar. Pulling the towel tightly around her body she slipped out into the hallway and crept toward the door.

"Well? Did you search their bags? Find anything out of the ordinary?" Rachel recognized Mrs. Hewitt's voice.

"I searched his and it was full of camping supplies; food, water, stuff like that…"

"What about hers?" Mrs. Hewitt's voice was sharp.

Rachel could hear the misery in Laura's voice. "She caught me before I could search it." At Mrs. Hewitt's sucked in breath, she continued hastily. "It's ok though. I told her I was looking for their dirty clothes, that you offered to do their laundry." Rachel smiled at the snort this brought from Mrs. Hewitt. "So she dumped her bag out. There wasn't much in it, clothes and some more camping stuff, honest."

"Nothing out of the ordinary?"

Laura gave a small giggle. "Well, not unless you count her undies. She wears silk ones."

Mrs. Hewitt made a sound of disapproval. "A pampered city girl, just like Richard told us. When she finally makes her appearance, I want you to keep an eye on her. And," She added tartly, "you can do her laundry, I've got too much on my plate to be babysitting the likes of her."

With a small smile Rachel slipped back to her room. She was satisfied the persona she had created for herself was being accepted without question. It would make it easier for her to get information out of the women; they wouldn't feel the need to guard their tongues around her.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

After showing Jacob to his friend's lab, Hewitt made his way to the warehouse that was the headquarters of the online store the group ran. He entered a room with three cubicles; each furnished with a state of the art computer. Two of the cubbies were occupied by men hunched over the keyboards who didn't look up at his entry. He went to the front of the room where his son was sitting, learning back from his computer.

"Were you able to find anything? Are they who they say they are?"

Will smirked. "Are you kidding? I got practically his whole life story." He tossed a wallet to his father. "Hard to believe someone would be so stupid as to carry their Social Security card around with them. Between that and his driver's license I found everything I needed."

"How'd you get this?"

"I can thank you for that." Wills eyes narrowed in dislike. "You made me pack up their gear, remember? I found that on the floor of the tent." He shrugged, "he hasn't missed it so I'm guessing he kept it in his pack. I'll get Laura to put it back and he won't be the wiser."

Sitting up straight Will gave his father a concise report of what he found. The pair seemed to be just what they purported to be; a pair of honeymooners. Will had found a copy of their marriage license online, it confirmed his statement to Rosen that the two had only been married a few months. Hood's resignation from the FBI was legitimate as was his position at Stanford. Will also thought the man was pretty well off financially.

"Why?"

"He's only got one credit card in his wallet, an American Express black card. They only give cards like that to high rollers."

Will had also been able to find information on Rachel Young. She was an employee of a do-gooder organization based in DC. The website not only had a her picture but also a short biography. She graduated from George Washington Law School and went to work for the NGO immediately upon graduation. This lined up with the DMV records which showed she had been a resident of the District for the past eight years.

"That's excellent news." Hewitt's face shone with satisfaction. "I knew there was divine intervention at work here. I knew it."

"Maybe," Will frowned. "I'm more worried about what I didn't find."

"What are you talking about boy?"

"I didn't find a permit for that Glock he was carrying."

Hewitt gave a huff of impatience. "So what? Maybe the man doesn't think it's any of the governments business if feels the need for a gun to defend himself, his wife."

Will rolled his eyes. "I don't think so. He's one of those law-abiding types. Shit, he worked for the FBI, he'd never have an unregistered gun." He paused thoughtfully, "come to think of it, Glocks are standard issue at the FBI."

"There you are then." his father declared. "It's probably his gun from when he worked there. He most likely never gave it back."

Will kept silent. His dealings with Rosen had left him feeling slightly contemptuous of these so-called geniuses. If this Hood was anything like Rosen, he found it hard to believe anyone at the FBI would think it was a good idea to arm an absent-minded professor. Watching his father's retreating back, he decided he'd keep a close eye on Hood and have Laura keep tabs on the woman.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

_That same day_

Felix Lee looked up from his newspaper with a frown as a ding from his computer announced an incoming email. He wondered idly who could be emailing him; the Doc and Agent Young should still be without internet access and the Director was in the habit of calling for an update. His frown deepened as he read the email. It was from the Doc's credit card company.

"Damn, this is weird."

Suzanne Corral looked up in irritation. She was working on her computer at the table in the common room of the small suite they rented. The remains of their lunch still surrounded her. "What? What's bothering you now?"

Felix carefully concealed the dislike he felt for the woman. She had done nothing but complain and find fault with any action he took since they arrived in Spokane. At first, he sympathized with her; it was hard to have a case pulled out from under you. But there were limits to his good nature and Corral reached them days ago.

"I got an alert from the Doc's credit card company. His card was just used to buy an expensive meal."

"God damn it." Corral swore. "You mean they're off the trail already? They must not have even tried to get in contact with the Sons. Damn it. I knew I should have insisted on accompanying Hood."

"No, that's not what I said. If he charged a big breakfast in Elmira I would have said it was disappointing. Or even surprising that the credit card company would flag it. When I said weird, I meant weird. That meal that got charged? It was in a restaurant in Paris, France."

Corral's jaw dropped. "Paris? How the hell did that happen? Did his account get hacked or something?" She looked at Felix questioningly. "Why did they alert you?"

Felix explained that one of his responsibilities on the team, aside from acting as advance man and recon specialist, was to file the team's expense reports. The credit card in question was one the Doc reserved for when they were in the field. For convenience sake, Felix was added to the account. As he talked to Corral, he quickly typed in the necessary passwords. In a few moments, he accessed the online records of the account.

"Shit! This thing has exploded in the past hour. Aside from that meal in Paris, there's a charge for $2,500 for a store in New York, almost $750 to a store in Atlanta, and $426 to a store in DC.

After a few clicks of his mouse, Felix heaved a sigh of relief. "Ok, the account's shut down, that should limit the damage." He picked up his phone and punched in a number.

"Who are you calling?"

"The field office in Seattle. We're gonna need someone with some computer skills to figure this out."

"Why, what's the big deal? It's a simple case of credit card fraud."

"Just a sec," Felix mumbled into the phone. He glared at Corral. "It's a big deal, 'cause the last time I saw that card it was in the Doc's wallet."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It was late in the day and Felix was hovering impatiently over the shoulder of a young man hunched over a computer. "Well? Have you figured anything out yet?"

The young man looked up in exasperation. "I told you Felix, it's gonna take time. Whoever is behind this is good, real good."

Felix raised an eyebrow, "Better than you?"

"Nah," the younger man smiled smugly. "No one's better than me."

The young man in question was Hunter Westbrook of the Seattle office's Computer Crimes Division. Hunter's FBI career began under unusual circumstances. He was being prosecuted by the government for hacking into NORAD's computer network. The FBI agent who arrested him was dumbfounded to discover the computer genius he had tracked for over a year was a 19 year old high school drop-out. After conferring with his superiors, the FBI convinced the federal prosecutor to offer Hunter a deal; he could go to prison or go to work for the Bureau. Hunter chose the Bureau.

Felix looked at him skeptically, "yeah, if you're so good how did you get caught?"

"Umm, my ex-girl-friend ratted me out," Hunter replied absently, never taking his attention from his computer screen. A few moments later he sat back, a look of satisfaction on his face. "Got 'em."

"What? What did you find?" Felix and Corral crowded around Hunter, trying to see his screen.

"We got lucky, turns out he's a greedy bastard, he got careless." Hunter smirked, "or else he's an arrogant greedy bastard and didn't think anyone could track him."

At Felix and Corral's blank looks Hunter launched into an explanation. The charges in New York reflected an online purchase. Using this as his starting point, he was able to discover the IP address of the person who used the card. That address led him to emails from the user of the card to an account for the seller of the number. Whoever the seller was, he was good. He had bounced his emails around the world, but Hunter had finally been able to isolate the original IP address to northern Idaho.

"Northern Idaho," Felix said sharply. "You're sure about that? You can't narrow it down, make it more specific?"

"Dude," Hunter rolled his eyes. "It's not like we're talking major population center here. According to what I found, the guy who sold your guy's number is in the middle of nowhere. This is where his being a greedy bastard helped us. I was able to trace the payment for the card to a bank in the Caymans.

Now, normally this would be a dead-end; you can't get the names on those accounts without creating an international incident. But I analyzed traffic coming out of the bank and thirty minutes after the wire transfer from our buyer, the exact same amount was transferred out to a bank in Spokane."

Hunter looked at them triumphantly, "So want to know the name of our bad guy?"

"Well, hell, yes, we want the name." It was Felix's turn to roll his eyes. "Who is it?"

"We'll need a warrant for that," Corral put in.

The two men looked at her in pity.

"I'm afraid," Felix said solemnly, "this may be a matter of national security. I do believe the Patriot Act applies here."

"Whatever," Hunter replied. His fingers were flying over his keyboard. "Hmmm, the account the money went into belongs to William and Laura Hewitt."

"William, you're sure it's William?" Corral asked. She flushed as Hunter glared at her. "It's just the head of the Sons is a man name Richard Hewitt."

He looked at Felix. "Want me to find out more?" He smiled happily at Felix's nod and turned back to his keyboard.

It took Hunter a little less than an hour to discover all there was to know about William Hewitt's dealings with the bank in Spokane. Aside from his joint account, he had access to one other, a business account for an organization called the Elmira Farmers Market.

"What the hell is that?" Felix asked.

"It a mail-order business the group runs," Corral answered. "They sell hand-made quilts, jams, stuff like that."

Felix did a quick search on his computer and looked at her incredulously, "_this_ is a group you think is developing a biological weapon?" He sniffed, "looks like they're more interested in selling lots of fancy homemade crap."

Corral's mouth tightened in annoyance. "It's expensive to equip a militia. What did you think? They robbed banks to get their money? And don't forget what they did with some of that money; they bought an x-ray machine. What do you think they're doing with the radioactive material it produces? They're sure as hell not selling _that _in their online store."

"Yeah," Hunter said, "but they aren't spending money on guns and shit."

As he expected this statement riveted the attention of both agents. Hunter outlined for them what he discovered about the accounts. The joint account showed only local deposits, the same amount every month. There were periodic withdrawals of cash via an ATM in Elmira and some automatic bill payments for a car loan and two credit cards. The balance of the account, while adequate, was nothing out of the ordinary. The transfer from the Cayman account was the only unusual thing about it.

The business account was flush. Tens of thousands of dollars flowed through this account weekly. The deposits were from banks all over the world. It seemed that the Sons were operating a thriving internet business. This account was also the one used by the Sons to pay their bills. From what Hunter could see, none of the payments went to anything but legitimate businesses.

There was one red flag though. After paying the necessary bills, at the end of the month the balance of the account was transferred to the bank in the Caymans. It would take him awhile to trace where that money went and it might take some doing, even for him. While it could represent a legitimate investment, it could just as easily be a way for the Sons to hide what they were doing.

"Exactly," Corral said. "They're using the money from the account in the Caymans to buy their weapons, not their business account. Don't you think they're smart enough to know the transactions would be too easy to trace if they were using a domestic account?"

"Still," Hunter was stubborn, "I don't see it. I mean, even if they're buying guns online and using the money in the off-shore accounts pay for 'em; how are they getting them delivered? As far as I can find, the only trucks delivering to that compound are from Fed Ex and UPS." He glared at Corral, "and those guys don't do heavy duty stuff like that."

"The real question," Felix said as he looked over the store's website, "is how in the hell are they making so much money?"


	3. Chapter 3

Rachel glanced at the bedside clock with growing irritation. It was almost an hour since she announced she was retiring for the night and Jacob still hadn't followed her upstairs. They hadn't had a moment to themselves since he had gone off with Rosen and she was anxious to not only share her discoveries but to learn what he had found out.

Part of her irritation was due to the fact that she felt restless. She would love to be up pacing the room reflecting on what she learned. But Will and Laura's bedroom was on the other side of the shared bathroom. When using it earlier she was shocked to realize how easily sound travelled through the closed door and she didn't want to do anything that might draw their attention to her.

She gave a small huff of satisfaction when the door opened and Jacob finally appeared. Before he could speak, she raised a warning finger to her lips.

"Honestly baby, I can't believe it took you this long to come to bed. I guess the honeymoon really is over."

Jacob looked at her confused by her actions and peevish tone. "I'm sorry, but once Henry starts talking about his work, it's hard to get away from him."

"Oh? I'm sure you could have managed it if you wanted to." She raised her voice a bit. "We share the bathroom with Will and Laura, so knock first to make sure one of them isn't using it."

Understanding dawned on his face; obviously Rachel feared their conversation could be overheard. As he moved into the bathroom he realized her concern was justified. While the voices were muffled, if he stood near the door he could just make out what Will and his wife were saying to each other.

Quickly preparing for bed, Jacob turned out the lights and got under the covers. Pulling Rachel into his arms, they huddled together. In whispers, Jacob and Rachel spoke simultaneously.

"I think Corral is off the mark, there's nothing going on here."

"I think Corral is on to something, there's definitely something odd going on here."

They looked at each other, gaping in surprise. Jacob shook his head. "Ok, you go first, why do you think Corral got it wrong."

"It's lots of little things. First off, this isn't a militia group. They don't have the right weapons."

"What? They have plenty of guns. I even saw some of the men practicing at a shooting range near Henry's lab."

"Yeah, they've got hunting rifles and shotguns. I haven't seen a single assault rifle or evidence of an armory anywhere. Plus, look at the grounds. There isn't a speck a security; anyone could walk in here."

Rachel went on to describe her day. Mrs. Hewitt delegated to Laura the job of keeping Rachel "out of the way." Happy to escape her daily chores and the unrelenting criticism of her mother-in-law Laura took her over the whole compound and introduced her to most of the women and some of the men. In spite of her suspicions, she found herself becoming interested and impressed with what she saw.

The community was almost totally self-supporting. There were fields where the group grew their own fruits and vegetables along with a lush assortment of herbs and flowers. Rachel was intrigued to find these herbs and flowers were used not only in the kitchens but also in the products the group made for sale. The lavender scented bath salts she had enjoyed were only one of the many items the group produced.

The women of the compound had a thriving business going. Along with the bath salts, there was a line of luxurious soaps and creams. Other products were homemade jams, jellies, and preserves. Baked goods were sold online and to the local markets. Most impressive were the quilts. Laura proudly told Rachel the group could produce five quilts a month. Some were sold locally but most were sold through their online store.

The men also contributed to the economy of the group. In response to Rachel's artlessly posed questions, Laura explained that the men were responsible for the hard labor in tending the crops and the other chores needed to maintain the community. Some of the men acted as hunting guides in season and that others actually had jobs in the local community. Two men were woodworkers and made furniture and other objects for both the community and for sale in the group's online store.

All of the money earned went into a one bank account; any member of the group could request money if and when they needed it. This was a rare occurrence as housing, food, and clothing were provided by the community.

Rachel even got a look at the x-ray machine that aroused the fusion center's interest. It turned out medical care was also provided by the community. During the tour of the orchard, one of the children fell out of a tree. Rachel and Laura were part of the group that rushed the boy to the small infirmary on the grounds. A nurse practitioner, who was a resident, used the machine to determine if his arm was broken.

"Corral was totally off the mark," Rachel concluded in disgust. "These people aren't a militia; they're a religious commune that seems to want to have as little to do with the outside world as possible." She looked at Jacob curiously. "So what did you see in your friend's lab that makes you think Corral was right? Is he really conducting nuclear experiments? Making some kind of weapon?"

"No, Henry's chasing a dream. He's trying to perfect cold fusion; he told me Hewitt hired him to develop an alternative power source for the compound."

"Cold fusion? What's that?"

Jacob tilted his head, considering. "What do you know about nuclear power plants?"

"They're big, they're dangerous?" Rachel shrugged. "Not much."

Jacob's lips twitched. "That's enough to understand the attraction of cold fusion. The power plants are big because when you spit atoms you generate a lot of heat, so you need large cooling towers. The danger comes in when the cooling towers prove inadequate and the reactors overheat." Rachel nodded in understanding. "Well, cold fusion is a method of splitting atoms that doesn't raise the temperature, making it a much safer and economical way to produce energy."

"That sounds like a good thing, so why are you saying Henry is chasing a dream?"

"Because it doesn't work. It was first reported back in the 90's but no one has ever been able to reproduce those experiments. The scientific community has generally discredited the idea."

"That was then; this is now," Rachel argued, "maybe your friend…." She broke off as Jacob shook his head sadly.

"No, I'm afraid Henry's mind isn't what it used to be. It isn't merely the cold fusion; he thought Maggie was still alive."

"You said you hadn't seen him for awhile, maybe he hadn't heard."

"Yes, it has been awhile." He looked at her soberly, "almost five years; the last time I saw Henry was at Maggie's funeral."

Rachel's eyes widened in shock and her mouth turned into an O. Jacob nodded. "Henry isn't working on anything that could prove to be a security risk to the country. Aside from his work on cold fusion, he seems to be running some experiments to genetically modify fruit trees."

"Then why do you think something is going on? It sounds as if what you found confirms my observations. These people are harmless."

"It's Henry's lab that bothers me. It's much too well equipped."

Jacob went on to outline his concerns. Henry wasn't exaggerating when he told them what a pleasure it was to work for Hewitt. His lab was absolutely first-rate. Not only was it well equipped, but the instruments were all the newest models.

"I'm sorry, but a lab like that can't be financed with the sale of beauty products and quilts," he concluded.

"I'm not so sure." Rachel tugged on the edge of the quilt covering them. "How much do you think they could get for a quilt this size?"

"I don't know. Two, three hundred dollars?"

"More like a thousand dollars." Rachel's lips curved up at Jacob's grunt of surprise. "My friend, Heather? The one I supposedly work for? Her group lends money to women like these, women running small, artisanal businesses. I've seen some of the quilts those women have sold and that's the price these things command. These quilts aren't just functional, they're works of art."

Jacob pursed his lips and did some quick calculations in his head. He finally shook his head. "No, it doesn't add up. Even if all of the quilts commanded a top price, which is statistically unlikely, they still couldn't fund a lab like Henry's. Not on top of all the other expenses a set-up like this must have. We need to ask some more questions."

"We'll need a good excuse to stick around. I don't think they'll buy my hurt foot, I walked all over the place today."

"We won't need one. Henry asked me tonight if it was possible for us to stay for a while, he still wants my help with his work."

"I hope you didn't accept right off the bat, look to eager to stay. I think Will isn't as happy about us being here as his father. At both lunch and dinner he kept staring at us."

Jacob smiled. "No, I told Henry I had to check with you first, since it would mean interrupting our honeymoon. We'll tell them in the morning we're staying."

"Good," Rachel yawned. "I'll try to get some more information out of Laura about the store, see what she knows about the financials." She tried to pull herself away from Jacob, "Goodnight baby."

"Where do you think you're going?" Jacob tightened his grip on her, shifting his leg over hers, pulling her closely against him. He began caressing her, sliding his hands under her t-shirt.

"Jacob, we shouldn't, we're really working now."

"But we're supposed to be a honeymoon couple, you said yourself that Will is suspicious of us, I think we need to provide him with some corroborating evidence."

Rachel laughed softly, "So, you see it as our duty to have sex, just to maintain our cover?"

"Oh yeah, absolutely."

"Well, you know I'm always willing to do my duty," Rachel murmured as she slipped her hand into Jacob's sleep pants.

He gave a gasp a pleasure at the feel of her hand stroking his cock, "It's one of the things I've always admired about you."

They made love, at first teasing each other, vying to see who could provide the best corroborating evidence. But as their arousal grew they lost themselves to the pleasure of touching, tasting each other's body, of making love to each other.

As they lay tangled in the sheets Rachel was sprawled across Jacob, her head on his chest, her leg tucked between his, his arms holding her close. She nuzzled his chest.

"I guess the honeymoon isn't over after all."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

At breakfast the next morning Jacob told Henry he decided to accept the invitation and delay his and Rachel's departure from the compound. He flashed a smile at Hewitt, "Assuming we won't put you out. We don't want to impose."

Don't be ridiculous." Hewitt said. "Your being here isn't an imposition, like I said yesterday, it was divine providence that brought you here. You're more than welcome to stay as long as you like."

Rosen looked up from his breakfast with delight. "That's wonderful news Jacob. I'm glad you decided to stay after all."

"Well, you should thank Rachel for agreeing to interrupt our honeymoon." Jacob casually looked at his watch. "If you'll excuse me, I need to call Felix, my grad student. He was expecting me in the lab sometime next week."

Will looked up, a disgruntled look on his face. He was clearly unhappy these two would be staying indefinitely. "You'll have to call from my office; we don't get cell service up here."

"Oh, no problem." Jacob pulled a phone from his pocket. "I anticipated there wouldn't be any cell service on the trail so I got a satellite phone."

Will frowned; he had been counting on listening in on the conversation. While his research hadn't turned up anything, he was still didn't fully trust the situation.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Felix grunted in relief as he picked up his ringing cell phone. "It's the Doc." He motioned for Corral and Hunter to be quiet. "Hey, I'm glad you called. Are you free to talk? We've turned up some interesting stuff here."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jacob ended his call and pocketed the phone with a thoughtful look on his face. His side of the conversation was fairly elliptical; he moved away from the group to make his call but he sensed Will was trying his best to overhear. Even so, he was sure Felix understood what he was trying to communicate. That was one of the advantages of working with someone for so long, they had their own verbal shorthand, they understood a lot from a few words.

Felix's account seemed to confirm what Rachel surmised, this was no paramilitary operation. Felix's hacker couldn't find any traces of arms sales to the group. What the hacker did find confirmed Jacob's observation; this group had money, lots of it. Felix and his crew would spend the day looking into the Sons finances in more detail while he and Rachel nosed around the compound to see what they could discover.

"Jacob?" called Rosen peremptorily, "finished that phone call yet? We need to get up to the lab."

Jacob's lips twitched. "I still need a few moments Henry." He pulled Rachel into a hug. "I have to say goodbye to my bride."

As Henry waited impatiently, Jacob briefly sketched out for Rachel what Felix had found. Looking around quickly to make sure no one was paying attention to them, he slipped her the satellite phone.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Well, what did he have to say?" Corral asked impatiently as Felix ended his call.

The big man looked at her, irritated. For someone who has shown consistently poor judgment during this whole operation, she could be pretty pushy.

"Seems the Doc ran into an old friend up at that compound." Felix said. He smiled grimly at the look of shock on Corral's face. "Yeah, they hired some retired scientist who was the Doc's teacher back in the day." He snorted, "Damn lucky he didn't show up with you claiming to be someone he's not. "

Corral recovered her composure; it had shaken her to realize how close to disaster she had skirted. "But he confirmed they have a scientist working on developing some kind of weapon?"

Felix shook his head doubtfully, "nah, according to the Doc he's working on an alternative energy source. Something about cold fusion?"

"You're kidding, right?" Hunter blurted out.

"No, why?"

"Cause it doesn't work, that's why." Hunter said. "I mean, everyone knows that don't they?"

He sighed at the looks he received from Felix and Corral. "Ok, so I guess it's not common knowledge. But it is in scientific communities. That old teacher of your friend? He must be soft in the head if he's working on cold fusion."

Corral refused to believe that the Homeland fusion center and she had gotten it totally wrong. "Look, just because wonder boy here can't find traces of weapons purchases doesn't mean they aren't happening. Maybe it just means they're smart enough to cover their tracks. Don't forget," she concluded triumphantly, "they bought an x-ray machine to provide them with radioactive matter."

Felix gave her a sour look. "Actually, they bought an x-ray machine to take x-rays."

To Corral's growing chagrin, Felix relayed the rest of what Hood had managed to tell him about the set-up in the compound. How the place was practically self-supporting up to and including a small medical facility. That Agent Young had been unable to find any traces of weapons even though she had been in almost all of the buildings in the community. And most telling, the group hadn't batted an eye when he admitted to formerly being in the employ of the Bureau.

"There is one thing the Doc agrees with us about," Felix frowned at the hopeful look on Corral's face. "That place seems to have too much money. He thinks whatever is going on there has something to do with that. I told him we were going to look into the finances of the online store."

Felix held up his hand as Hunter opened up his laptop. "Hang on a second. It's clear to me whatever is going on doesn't have anything to do with national security. I think we better get a few search warrants before we go any further."

"Aw, come on man," Hunter complained, "that'll take forever."

"Not necessarily," Felix replied with a smirk. He pulled out his cell phone. "Hello? Director Fuller….."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

After Jacob departed with Rosen, Rachel asked Mrs. Hewitt about getting a ride into Elmira. In the face of Mrs. Hewitt's disapproval she explained they had left their luggage at the bed and breakfast there. Since they were going to be staying at the compound, she really should retrieve it along with their rental car.

As Mrs. Hewitt began fussing about the inconvenience, Laura jumped in to remind her mother-in-law that she was scheduled to go into Elmira anyway. She had to deliver the packages from the online store to the local post office. Soon Rachel and Laura were driving away from the compound in a pick-up truck whose bed was filled with boxes.

On the drive to Elmira Rachel deliberately kept the conversation general. She didn't want to raise any suspicions on Laura's part. Before heading to the bed and breakfast, she helped unload the boxes at the post office. She suggested that after Laura finished they meet up at the local coffee shop.

"Let me buy you a cup of coffee, it's the least I can do after all the hospitality you've shown me," she urged.

After a brief hesitation, Laura smiled and nodded. Shortly afterward, the two young women were established at a table in the sunny window, drinks and pastries in front of them. Rachel smiled at Laura over the whipped cream of her mochachino.

"You know, I find the whole concept of your group, the store, so …fascinating." she said. "It reminds me of the groups I used to work with at my old job. But you seem to be much more organized than any of them."

Laura beamed with pride. With a judicious mixture of flattery and questions, Rachel soon had a good idea of how the online store was run. Will and a small group of men were responsible for maintaining and running the website. This group passed along the orders to the warehouse and handled all of the billing and the receipt of payments. A small frown passed over Laura's face. Rachel raised an eyebrow, wondering what was bothering the woman. She delicately probed to discover what the problem might be.

It turned out that until two years ago, the store had been her baby. She and Will met and fell in love when they both worked for a high-tech start-up in California. Will wrote code and she oversaw the finances of the company. When the company went out of business, Will talked her into moving to Idaho to join his father's commune to help them launch the online store.

They had been there for four years and at first things weren't too bad. By working long hours in the warehouse office, concentrating on getting the store online and making a small profit, she avoided her mother-in-law and most of the other members. But then two years ago, after the store started making a decent profit, things changed. Will brought in two friends who used to work with him at the tech start-up; they had taken over the development and maintenance of the web site. Furthermore, he decided to consolidate the ordering, invoicing, and payments into one department and he and his friends were ones to run that department. She and the members of the commune who previously did those jobs were transferred to other positions within the compound.

Laura was disappointed in being shut out of the operation of the online store, but her complaints fell on deaf ears. Will brushed her concerns aside and her in-laws wouldn't hear a word against their son. She admitted they had good cause to be pleased with Will's work; under his direction the store's profits had sky-rocketed.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Taking the satellite phone from her pocket, Rachel silently blessed Felix for having the foresight to reserve a rental car with Bluetooth capabilities. As she punched the number into the phone, she hoped the drive back to the compound would be long enough for them to fill each other in on what they had discovered.

"Hey Doc, anything new?"

"It's me, Felix," Rachel answered. "I don't have much time; I'm in the car heading back to the compound. Hood gave me a general idea of what you've found. That you've pretty much agree with me that this isn't a militia."

"Yeah, Hunter…."

"Who's that?"

"Hunter Westbrook," Felix explained. "He's the computer guy the Seattle office sent us. He's been over the group's financial records and he can't find any traces of them purchasing or taking delivery of any weapons."

"I'm not surprised. I was all over the place yesterday and I couldn't see any trace of an armory. Shit, they only have some hunting rifles and a few shotguns. How's the money trail looking?"

"He's digging a little deeper today; we just got authorization to send a request to the bank in the Caymans so Hunter thinks he'll have something soon. So far he hasn't come up with anything unusual in their domestic account; they seem to be running a pretty successful business, lots of orders with a good cash flow."

"How successful? Hood seems to think they have too much money and from what I've seen the store can't be generating large amounts of cash."

Rachel heard some mumbling on the other end of the phone. "Felix? What's going on?"

"I put you on speaker so the others could hear and according to Hunter the store is pulling in major bucks."

"That's right," Hunter said. "I've pulled their bank records and they're showing deposits for some serious cash from all over the world. They may have started slow but the business has really picked up in the last couple of years."

"All over the world? You're sure about that?"

"Yeah, I've seen deposits from banks in Europe and Asia, why?"

"Because I just helped with their latest shipment and the only package not going to somewhere in the States was one addressed to Canada." She frowned, "even if they were shipping internationally how could they be generating that much cash? I've seen their products, they're good but they don't have the volume."

"Maybe your visit is hitting a slow time in the business? All I can say is the money is coming in and something has to be going out."

Corral's voice broke in. "But who says what's going out are the products listed in their catalog? What if they're selling drugs? They wouldn't be the first backwoods group to take up drug dealing. Maybe they're making meth."

Rachel mentally rolled her eyes. "You're watching too much TV. Hood and I have been all over the compound, the lab and trust me, if they were cooking meth or making other drugs we'd have noticed." She shook her head, dissatisfied. "Plus they're way to open, yeah, the old man is paranoid about trespassers, but he didn't mind a bit when we announced we were going to stick around indefinitely."

Rachel thought for a moment. "Look, Hunter? See if you can find any kind of pattern to the deposits. I'll try to get into the office, see if I can find some invoices or something."

"Uh, Agent Young, before you do that, why don't you let me try to access their servers? It might be safer for me to get this stuff electronically than for you to go poking around."

"Sounds good." Rachel slowed; she was almost to the turn for the compound. "I have to hang up now, I'll see if I can get Hood alone this afternoon and we'll try to call back, compare notes."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It was late in the afternoon before Rachel could get Jacob alone. She wasn't entirely dissatisfied by this turn of events; her time without him had been productive. By volunteering to help in the warehouse she managed to discover quite a bit about the scope of operations of the online store. As she had suspected, the store wasn't doing the volume of business it would need to generate the kind of income Hunter was finding.

Aside from the quilts, all of which sold for a thousand dollars or more, and some of the furniture, the majority of the products cost under twenty dollars. And while business was brisk, the typical order was in the range of fifty dollars. With what she saw in the warehouse over the last two days, Rachel estimated the group couldn't be clearing tens of thousands a week in online sales that Hunter discovered.

She was pleased when, a few hours before dinner, Jacob and a subdued Rosen came into the common room. She tried to think of a way to get Jacob alone when he took the matter out of her hands.

"Hello sweetheart, I convinced Henry we should wrap up our work early today so you and I could spend some time together. Why don't we go for a walk?"

Rachel agreed with a smile. Soon they were walking away from the compound, hand in hand. They kept their conversation general while they were still within sight. They finally stopped when they came to an outcropping of rock. The exposed position was perfect; sitting there they would be able to see anyone approaching long before they were in hearing distance.

"Did you manage to get in touch with Felix?" Jacob asked.

"Yeah, he and the computer guy the Bureau sent got a good look at the finances of the group. There's a discrepancy though. According to Felix, you were right, this group is flush. But what I saw at the warehouse today doesn't jib; the group isn't doing near the volume needed to be pulling in the cash they found."

"That's not conclusive; our visit might be coinciding with a brief downturn in business."

"That's what Felix's hacker said, he was going to see if he could break into their servers, find any invoices. How about you? Did you manage to get out of the lab to look around?"

Jacob pursed his lips. "Let's call Felix. It'll save time if I don't have to go into this twice."

Nodding in agreement Rachel pulled the satellite phone out of the waistband of her jeans and handed it to Jacob.

"Hey Agent Young,"

Jacob smiled. "It's me this time Felix. We were wondering what you found out about the online store's sales. Rachel spent the afternoon in the warehouse and she's convinced they don't have the volume of sales to explain the cash-flow you found."

"Yeah, well Hunter found some invoices and according to him, what they're charging for those quilts makes up for the lack of volume."

"What do you mean, Felix," Rachel said. "I know the quilts are pricey, but they can't be making that much from them."

"Agent Young?" Hunter said, "I was able to hack into their server and see some invoices. They're getting top dollar for those quilts, a thousand bucks a pop, and since they sell about ten or twelve of them a week they're raking in some big bucks."

"What? Ten or twelve a week?" Rachel asked sharply. "Are you sure?"

"Uh, yeah." Hunter couldn't understand her tone.

"That's impossible. Those things are handmade, Laura told me they're lucky to complete five of them a month."

There was silence from the other end of the line. Finally Hunter said slowly. "All I can tell you is that I found a bunch of invoices for quilts. Most of the invoices were for multiple quilts."

"It sounds like they're laundering money," Felix said. "They're using fake invoices to explain the cash flow. The big question is what are they really selling? According to you two there isn't anything hinky going on there." He shot a contemptuous look in Corral's direction, "it's not like they're making drugs or anything."

"No, it's not drugs," Jacob said. "But there is something strange going on in that office."

Jacob quickly explained how he had spent his day. Knowing there was no internet connection in the lab, he convinced Henry he needed to run a literature search to see if anyone else was working on cold fusion; had maybe come up with a work around to the problem Henry was experiencing. As Jacob hoped, the computer Henry led him to was in the building that housed the offices for the online store.

It was clear that Will wasn't happy when they invaded his domain. He grudgingly gave them workspace and kept an eye on them the entire time they were there. According to what Rachel learned the previous day, this was the place where the online orders were collated and distributed to the warehouse. While he didn't have a clean line of sight for all of the monitors, for the most part the men seemed to be working exclusively with numbers. He only saw a few order forms printed out.

Hunter sat quietly letting the voices of the others wash over him as they argues about the source of the money. Agent Corral was still pushing her drug manufacturing theory. He figured Agent Young knew what she was talking about when she said there was no way the group was making that many quilts or any drugs. She was the one on the ground; she was the one with the first-hand knowledge about the group. Agent Young's voice suddenly cut through his fog. She was vehemently disagreeing with something Agent Corral said.

"No, I told you. There is absolutely nothing hinky going on here. No drugs being manufactured, no guns being stockpiled, nothing. These people are completely aboveboard."

"Actually," Hunter said slowly, "there is something hinky going on. It's what brought me in on this case. Dr. Hood's credit card was stolen and the number sold by someone there, most likely Will Hewitt. I should have realized it sooner, that's what they're selling, credit card numbers, maybe even other ID information. There's a big market for that stuff."

Felix swore, "Just like the Russians."

"Right," confirmed Hunter. He went on to explain to the others what he and Felix were talking about. A few months previously, the FBI in California busted an identity theft ring. It was run by seven Russian hackers and the FBI estimated they earned several million dollars before being stopped.

"It's genius, most of these guys, they have to work at getting people's information. But here, shit, people willingly give 'em their credit card numbers." Hunter shook his head, admiringly. "I wonder how long they've been at it?"

Rachel's snort could be clearly heard through the phone. "I don't know about genius, but I have to admit it's a slick operation." She continued, "I can pretty much guarantee that it's been going on for about two years. That's when Will took control of the operations of the store, replaced the workers with buddies from a failed tech company."

Hunter let out a whistle. "That long? Wow, those guys have raked in some serious cash."

Rachel nodded. "The only question is how do we prove it? Can you hack into their computers?"

"Don't need to," Hunter replied. "I've already traced one illegal transaction to their IP address. We can get a warrant to seize all of their computers pretty easy. Getting a team set-up to serve it may take some time though."

"Do it," Rachel said. "But Felix, don't serve the warrants without giving us a heads up. This compound is pretty spread out, I want to make sure Will doesn't have a chance to destroy any evidence."

…..

The next two days were sheer torture from Rachel's point of view. While Jacob spent the majority of his time with his friend in the lab, she was stuck working under the eagle eye of Mrs. Hewitt. It was difficult, but she still managed to keep in touch with Felix as he arranged the raid on the compound. She was relieved when he confirmed the team was in place and the raid would be staged the following morning.

Rachel was pleased the end of the operation was in sight. While the undercover operation was necessary, she felt slightly guilty about parts of it. She deliberately cultivated a friendship with Laura in order to obtain information but she had developed a genuine liking for the woman. She knew Laura would never forgive her for the part she played in her husband's arrest.

After dinner, she waited patiently as Jacob detached himself from Henry. The older man wanted to discuss their progress over the last few days, but Jacob patiently explained that he wanted to spend time with Rachel.

"After all," he said with a small smile, "this is our honeymoon."

When they finally reached the privacy of their room, Rachel outlined for Jacob the plan Felix devised. Felix had taken her advice and the invasion would coincide with the group's breakfast. Rachel was to keep everyone in the dining hall until back-up arrived to prevent any of the hackers from trying to destroy evidence.

Jacob frowned. "How are you supposed to keep anyone from leaving? I mean, once they understand what's going on, hear Felix and his team, you know they're going to try to make a break for it."

"Well," Rachel reached under her pillow and pulled out her Glock. "That's why I have this." She sighed at the look on Jacob's face. "It'll be fine. These people aren't violent, once I announce I'm FBI they'll behave themselves."

"Not violent? May I remind you we began this charade with that bastard Will holding a knife to your throat?"

"I know. But from watching him, talking to Laura, I've gotten a pretty good read on him. He likes to pretend he's a tough guy, but it's all talk with him." She held up her hand to stop Jacob's response. "Yeah, he had that knife, but he put it away pretty damn quick when his father showed up. He knew the old man would give him hell for the way he was behaving." She smiled wolfishly, remembering the way Will had run his hands over her body, "Although I would enjoy it if he did try something."

Leaving Jacob shaking his head doubtfully, Rachel retrieved her backpack. Dumping out the contents, she carefully removed her FBI badge and ID from the false bottom. She was confident these, along with her Glock, would be all she would need to control the crowd at breakfast.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The next morning Jacob was tense. Even though he had complete confidence in Rachel and Felix, he was worried about the competence of the other agents involved in the raid. They needed split second timing if they wanted to prevent Will or his confederates from destroying any evidence.

Hewitt was halfway through the morning prayer when one of the men burst into the room, red-faced and panting. "Father Hewitt! We're being invaded by the feds! A couple of SUVs just drove up and…" The rest of the man's words were lost as the room exploded in pandemonium.

Rachel quickly took up a position by the door, cutting off some men who were attempting to go outside. Holding up her badge and pulling her weapon from the waistband of her jeans, she bellowed, "FBI. This is a raid and I need everyone to remain where they are."

Her words temporarily froze everyone in place. As the shock wore off the noise level began to increase. As Jacob feared, Will and his buddies tried to leave the dining hall.

"Get out of my way you god damned bitch." Will snarled. "If you think I'm gonna let…"

Rachel leveled her weapon at him. "I said for everyone to remain where they are. Get back to your seat and put your hands on the table."

"Huh, what are you going to do? Shoot me? An unarmed man? I don't think so."

"Don't push your luck," Rachel warned him. "I will shoot if necessary."

"Rachel!" Laura's anguished voice cut though the hum of conversation. "You can't, won't…."

Rachel's eyes flickered over to Laura and an uncomfortable look crossed her face. Will, taking advantage of her distraction, lunged toward her. Rachel easily side-stepped to avoid him. Stuffing her weapon back in her jeans, she grabbed his arm as he passed her. Swinging him around her fist met his chin in an uppercut, flooring him.

Retrieving her weapon once again, Rachel again announced that everyone should take a seat. As everyone began to settle down the door opened and Felix burst in, weapon drawn. He was followed by several other agents in FBI windbreakers.

"Everything ok here, Agent Young?"

"Fine Felix. How's it going in the rest of the compound?"

At this point Hewitt stormed over. "This is outrageous! How dare you trespass on my property?"

"Mr. Richard Hewitt?" Felix handed the man a folded piece of paper. "This is a search warrant, we're authorized to search this entire compound and seize any computers used in the operation of the online store."

"Computers?" Hewitt looked bewildered. "The store? What's going on here?"

"I'm sorry Mr. Hewitt," Rachel took pity on the old man. "But we've uncovered evidence that your store is a front for an identity theft ring."

This statement brought a reaction from an unexpected source. "A front? For theft?" Laura shrieked. "You idiot!" She raced over to where Will was still slumped on the floor and aimed a kick at him. Rachel, astonished, held her back.

"You god damned idiot. I had that store making a decent profit, but oh, no, that wasn't good enough. for you. You convinced your parents their precious son could do so much better. Now we're going to lose everything!" She broke down weeping.

The group grew silent as Laura's words sank in. The fear they might lose their homes and livelihood cast a pall over the group. Rachel shifted uncomfortably, she felt guilty about her part in Laura's misfortune. With an effort, Laura pulled herself together. Ignoring Rachel, she approached Felix.

"Are you in charge here?"

Felix's eyes flicked over her head to find Agent Young. At her nod, he replied to Laura, "Yes ma'am. What can I do for you?"

"That warrant," she nodded to the paper Hewitt still held folded in his hands. "What exactly are you authorized to take? Do you have the authority to close down the store?"

"We're authorized to confiscate any computers used or that could have been used in the running of the store." Felix shrugged, "We aren't going to shut you down per se, but I can't see how you can operate without your computers, servers."

"But what if we can prove they weren't used? Like my personal laptop? Or the computer in the clinic?"

"I'm afraid we can't take your word for it ma'am. We'll have to take 'em all to be checked out by our people."

"Uh, maybe not Felix." Hunter jammed his hands in his pockets. He had originally been stoked when Felix told him he'd be going on the raid; he rarely left the office. But being in the field was different than riding a desk, he was shaken by obvious distress around him. He wanted to help if he could.

He quickly outlined his plan. Under his supervision, they could run scans on all of the computers in the compound. They would only confiscate those computers that contained evidence of wrong-doing. The server might prove trickier. Unless he could find at least one blade free of evidence, they would have to confiscate the entire thing. At Rachel's nod of confirmation, Felix agreed to the plan.

Jacob accompanied Hunter to the warehouse in order to identify which computers Will and his buddies had been using. Felix supervised the search of the compound which turned up only two other computers, the ones Laura indicated. He had them both brought to the dining hall. Rachel elected to supervise the questioning of the members of the compound. She was able to separate out those members who had little or nothing to do with the store.

She personally questioned Will Hewitt and his two accomplices. Will stonewalled her, he refused to answer any questions without a lawyer present. She had better luck with his accomplices, Sam Orr and Tony Cochran. The two men were furious when Rachel told them their activities came to the attention of the Bureau when the money paid for Dr. Hood's stolen credit card was traced to Will Hewitt's personal bank account. They couldn't believe his greed caused the whole scheme to come crashing down. They were more than happy to inform on Will in exchange for a deal.

According to them the whole theft ring was Will's idea. After assisting his wife set up the online store, he quickly realized the opportunities it offered. He recruited them to help him exploit the customers. They claimed they were merely employees of Will; he kept the majority of the profits. When asked about Mr. Hewitt's complicity, Sam and Tony were adamant that the old man knew nothing; Will lavished money on the compound to keep the old man happy and his nose out of their business. Rachel was relieved when they confirmed the three of them were the only ones involved in the thefts.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Felix and Rachel were quietly talking in a corner of the dining hall. Agents had taken Will, Sam, and Tony into custody and Rachel allowed the rest of the members of the compound to go about their business. Laura, Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt, and Dr. Rosen were the only ones remaining; Laura was trying to explain the extent of the disaster to her in-laws. When Jacob and Hunter returned a smile flickered across Rachel's face. From Jacob's smile and Hunter's smug look Rachel surmised this meant good news for the members of the compound.

"Your friend Laura lucked out," announced Hunter. "These guys only used three of the four computers in the office for their scam. Even better, only one blade on the server had information related to the thefts." He shrugged, "it won't be optimal but she'll be able to keep the store online and operational."

"What if they had another couple of computers?" Rachel pointed to the two machines on the table next to her. Hunter went to work checking them out.

Laura's head came up as she heard what Hunter said. Reluctantly, she approached Rachel. "Are you really going to let us keep the store up and running?"

"Absolutely not." snapped an annoyed voice. "That store is the center of a criminal conspiracy. The government will be seizing everything here that is the fruit of that conspiracy."

Rachel's mouth tightened in anger as Agent Corral entered the dining hall. She hated the way the woman's words had killed the hope that was blooming on Laura's face. "That's not your call." Rachel said. "These people are just as much victims of this crime as any of the people whose information was stolen."

"What? You suffering from Stockholm syndrome or something?" Corral sneered. "_These people_ closed their eyes to what was going on around here. They're as guilty as sin and we're going to close them down."

"You have no idea what's going on here," Rachel said, "not that that's any big surprise. You've misjudged this place from the beginning and now you're trying to cover your ass by claiming some kind of conspiracy."

Corral flushed in anger. "You've obviously lost your objectivity here, so I think it _is_ my call…"

"Actually, I think it's my call."

Rachel's eyes widened. "Director Fuller. What are you doing here?" She added belatedly, "Sir."

Frank grinned briefly at the look on Young's face. "Agent Lee kept me in the loop as to what was going on here. It seems you've broken up a major identity theft ring. I wanted to be on site, hold a news conference from here."

Between the two of them, Rachel and Felix were able to outline for the Director what they had discovered about the Sons of Zion, the operation of the compound, the online store, and how Will and his buddies had orchestrated the thefts without the knowledge or cooperation of anyone in the group.

"So you can see, Director Fuller," Corral put in as Rachel and Felix wound down, "we have ample cause to seize everything in the compound and halt operations of the online store."

The Hewitt's made sounds of protest and Rachel opened her mouth to argue with Corral. She shut her mouth as the Director raised an eyebrow.

"Hmmm, I'm not so sure of that." He nodded toward Rachel and Felix, "according to what I've just heard that store's a legit operation, plus it seems this group has several income streams we had no knowledge of." He shook his head slowly, "no, this is going to be one for the lawyers to sort out. I think we're going to have to let them keep their store going until we get this figured out."

"But sir," Corral began to protest. "I really think…"

Frank drew himself up to his full height. "Agent Corral, might I remind you that this is a Bureau operation and I and I alone have the final say in what happens here. I suggest you head back to DC to file your report to Deputy Undersecretary Hager. I'm sure he'll be interested in the abject failure of you and the fusion center to identify exactly what was going on here."

Rachel couldn't help smirking a bit as Corral left the dining hall. Laura approached Frank tentatively.

"Excuse me, sir? I'm Laura Hewitt. I, uh, I'm in charge of the online store. Do you mean it? We can keep it open."

Frank nodded. "Like I told Agent Corral, this is going to be a tricky situation. Agent Young here is one of my best agents and she vouches for you, the group's honesty. Until we get this straightened out I'm willing to accept her word and let you folks make your case with the lawyers."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

To Hunter's astonishment, they didn't leave the compound and head back to Spokane after the raid was finished. To his delight, Agent Young put him to work helping Laura Hewitt get the online store up and running again. With the two extra computers he cleared of involvement, he was able to get things set up so that the store was running without a glitch.

To Rachel's consternation, the Director also elected to remain in Elmira. She supposed she was a bit paranoid, but she wondered if he wanted to take the time to evaluate her and Jacob's relationship; if he fully accepted Jacob's rationale for them posing as a honeymoon couple. To her relief, she overhead him telling Jacob he always wondered why they didn't immediately head back to DC when they wrapped up a case. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to watch his Special Science Advisor at work.

She spent time huddled with Laura. The friend who had provided her cover ID was more than willing to lend the group money to hire a good attorney and a forensic accountant. While this wasn't the type of thing Heather's group normally funded she had no problem with the venture. As she grimly told Laura, she personally had no problem authorizing funding to help a group of women whose lives and businesses had been screwed over by the men they trusted.

Jacob spent time in the lab with his friend. Mrs. Hewitt wanted to raise the money for the lawyer by selling off the fancy lab equipment her husband provided the scientist; especially when Jacob explained to them that Rosen's pursuit of cold fusion was a dead end. But he persuaded them to not to; in his time in the lab he had noticed some old experiments Henry was neglecting. He was very close to developing a genetically modified apple tree, one that would produce abundantly in the cold local climate. In Jacob's opinion, this apple was a real break-through; it would be worth a small fortune in the agricultural marketplace.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Rachel looked around appreciatively; one of the benefits of having the Director stick around was getting a ride home in his private plane. Her smile faltered a bit when the Director took the seat beside her that Felix had recently vacated.

"So, Young," Frank said casually, "I hope your, uh, honeymoon wasn't to uncomfortable."

Rachel suppressed the urge to raise an eyebrow. It seemed the Director might have a few doubts about what was going on between her and Jacob after all; this looked like the beginning of a fishing expedition. She decided to take his question at face value.

"Not at all," she replied cheerfully. "I had no idea Dr. Hood was such an accomplished camper. You wouldn't believe the meals he produced, they were gourmet quality." She laughed lightly, "plus, he's such a guy, he insisted on carrying the heavier equipment."

Rachel hid a smile at the nonplussed look on the Director's face.

"Uh, yeah, Jacob's a real Eagle Scout." Frank cleared his throat, "And, you, um, didn't have any problems, uh, with your cover story?"

"Nope, the group accepted us without a qualm. Dr. Hood was right, as his wife, they treated me as nothing more than an appendage of him, someone totally unimportant. I was able to look around without raising any questions. Although it _was _hard having to pretend to be a dutiful wife."

She grimaced a bit, looked left and right and leaned toward the Director, lowering her voice, "Having to share a room with him, though, was … exhausting."

Frank's eyebrows climbed up his forehead and he let out a strangled "Oh?"

Rachel almost snickered at the look on his face. "The man snores like a freight train. I haven't had a good night's sleep since we left DC."

Frank's next "Oh" came out as a whoosh of relief.

"So if you don't mind sir," Rachel murmured as she let her eyes drift closed, "I think I might try to catch some Z's."

Watching the Director through her eyelashes, Rachel glad to see his face lost the concerned look he started with. She was satisfied that she had successfully laid to rest any doubts he might have about her and Jacob's relationship. She hoped Jacob would forgive her the lie about his snoring. She smiled to herself, it was best the Director didn't learn just yet exactly how Jacob kept her from getting a full night's sleep.


End file.
